This article reports on delays in the implementation of a two-year-old law aimed at caring for orphans in the United Arab Emirates apparently linked to the delayed construction of a new and expanded shelter. Plans for the shelter, due to house babies and children of unknown parentage, have been substantially revised after the President, Sheikh Khalifa, increased the shelter budget to Dh70 million and said he would take on the full project and build a complete village, to be called Sheikh Khalifa Village for Social Care. The Minister of Social Affairs said bylaws could not be released since they were dependent on the shelter’s existence and that was the sole reason for the delay. A rise in the number of abandoned children has been reported in the media in UAE.
