Tori Towey: ‘There was a time I didn’t think I would come back home at all’
A human rights activist criticised Dubai’s ‘old-fashioned’ legal system that ‘hasn’t caught up with the buildings and with the shopping malls’.
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Your support makes all the difference.An Irish woman who had been under a travel ban in Dubai after being charged with attempted suicide has praised the Irish government for its swift work on her case.
The travel ban against Tori Towey, a 28-year-old flight attendant from Co Roscommon, was lifted and the charges dropped on Wednesday after the Irish government’s and opposition politicians’ focus on her case.
Ms Towey arrived back in Ireland on Thursday and said she was relieved to be back on home soil.
So I'm just relieved and I suppose over the next few weeks I'm just going to rest and spend time with family and friends and then just go from there
Speaking on a live discussion on the social media site X, Ms Towey said she attended a dinner at her cousin’s house after arriving back home.
“There was a time where I didn’t think it was even possible that I was going to be able to come back at all,” she said.
She described conditions in a Dubai police station prison, which she spent several hours in, as “harrowing” and said she could not stop thinking about other women who did not have someone to advocate on their behalf.
She said had she taken the legal route to fight the case against her, “the situation might have ended up even worse because I would have been stuck over there for a longer time”.
She said this was because she would have had to pay very high legal fees which could have seen her go into debt, as she could not work under the travel ban, and resulted in more legal cases taken against her.
Radha Stirling, of Detained in Dubai, said that court cases can be taken in Dubai against people who fail to pay credit card bills or rent.
Ms Towey said: “So I’m just relieved and I suppose over the next few weeks I’m just going to rest and spend time with family and friends and then just go from there.”
Ms Towey thanked Ms Stirling for her help with her case, as well as Sinn Fein TD for Roscommon-Galway Claire Kerrane, who raised the case with Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald.
“Then Mary Lou within minutes was on the phone to me and so I told her my story and she said ‘Look, I’m going to take it to the Dail (Irish parliament), I think, in one hour’,” Ms Towey said.
“So then we were watching the Oireachtas live and she brought it to the Dail and then (Irish premier) Simon Harris called me after they had a private meeting and they were straight on it.
“They kept in touch with us.
They all just worked as a team and they were amazing. I'm so grateful to all of them
“Any time there was an update, they were phoning us, I know (Irish foreign affairs minister) Micheal Martin was doing a lot behind the scenes as well.
“They all just worked as a team and they were amazing.
“I’m so grateful to all of them.”
She said once the Irish government got involved, embassy officials worked “day and night” on the case and were updating her constantly, sometimes at night.
Ms Stirling praised the Irish government’s handling of the case and the embassy escort of Ms Towey to the airport in Dubai.
She said: “I think what was different about Ireland is they reacted so quickly, it wasn’t even two days or three days, it was within hours of me contacting other local political representatives and suddenly it’s already all the way up the chain within just a few hours.
“That was amazing to see.
Beautiful to see the support coming from all of the Irish people and the media. I think it just helped her get through the time
“Beautiful to see the support coming from all of the Irish people and the media.
“I think it just helped her get through the time.”
Ms Stirling said she had been contacted by another Irish woman who appeared to be in a similar situation to Ms Towey as a result of the high publicity of the case.
She criticised Dubai’s legal system as “old-fashioned” and said there needed to be greater awareness around the world of what is an offence.
Ms Stirling said: “It just hasn’t caught up with the buildings and with the shopping malls and the glitz and the glamour.
“So that’s something that they absolutely need to focus on or every couple of months there is just going to be another big viral story like this that outrages the world.”
She added: “I do believe that the travel warnings absolutely should be increased on the Irish embassy website because they’re insufficient.
“I haven’t seen a single country that has been sufficient in explaining to citizens what is actually illegal.”