Uber, Careem suspended in Abu Dhabi following arrests

Car hailing services Uber and Careem have temporarily suspended operations in Abu Dhabi, UAE after the country’s police arrested around 50 drivers.

According to UAE’s The National, over 70 cars impounded this weekend, but no one quite understands why the drivers were arrested or cars impounded.

“There’s a lot of confusion as to why they were arrested. We haven’t been able to see them or speak to them yet,” an operations manager told The National.

“One of our drivers was put in jail at the weekend and it’s happened with loads of drivers from other limousine companies as well.”

Uber and Careem drivers were arrested over the weekend, while around 70 cars were impounded in Abu Dhabi

Careem, a UAE-based company launched in 2012, is now available in 25 cities across the Middle East and Asia.

When your car doesn’t work, and there’s no @CareemUAE #inAbuDhabi. pic.twitter.com/bWi07J8l12

— Rim ElChami (@RimElChami) August 29, 2016

According to Careem Dubai’s marketing VP Christian Eid, its service has been suspended largely to save customers from inflated prices.

“We don’t have clarity on what’s going on yet but with so many drivers withdrawing, prices have gone up due to lack of supply. We didn’t think this was fair on our customers so we decided to temporarily suspend the service until we know what’s going on,” he explains.

Related: Uber drivers share the ‘deepest’ passenger secrets they’ve heard

This isn’t the first time car hailing services have come under fire from global authorities.

In Cape Town, over 30 vehicles were impounded in January 2015 after city officials deemed that Uber drivers were operating without permits.

Earlier this year, Uber and its competitor Lyft faced lawmakers and voters in Austin, Texas after a motion passed that required all rideshare drivers to be fingerprinted through the city’s background check system.