SlaveryMap
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The data

Documented cases

Every case on SlaveryMap, drawn from public sources and shown with its location deliberately generalized to protect survivors.

1,631documented cases
112countries
1981–2025years covered

631 of 1,631 cite a source · Updated

Sex TraffickingCSECForced Labor
6 cases on the mapOpen the map →

Matching cases

Forced Labor2023

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 2023

United Arab Emirates

South Asian construction workers held in labor camps. Passports confiscated wages withheld threatened with deportation extreme heat conditions Accused: Construction subcontractor.

1 source
Sex Trafficking2010

Raffa, Dubai, UAE, United Arab Emirates, 2010

United Arab Emirates AE

Two Chinese women, a 40 year old businesswoman and her 38 year old colleague were tried and convicted of human trafficking crimes. It is believed that two others, including the son of the 40 year old, were also involved. They have been found to have forced the victims, two women and a man, to work at a massage parlour owned by the businesswoman, providing illegal massages and sexual services without getting paid under threat and confinement. One of the victims, a 32 year old Thai woman was picked up from the Dubai International Airport by the businesswoman and her son in February 2010. She was forced to provide sexual services in an apartment run as a massage parlour. She worked primarily for free as the massage centre owner threatened her that she would have to pay the expenses incurred for bringing her to the country and the accommodation. During the investigation, the businesswoman admitted that she seized the passports and visas of the victims upon their arrival. She was accused of taking advantage of the financial hardships of the victims to force them to obey her.

1 sourceArchive 2008–2016
CSEC2009

Al Baraha, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 2009

United Arab Emirates AE

One 15-year-old sex trade victim turned to Dubai Police to free her from her captors after she managed to escape with the assistance of a client. Captain Ahmad Obaid Bin Hadibah, Head of Dubai Police's Department of Combating Human Trafficking, has handled 15 cases of human trafficking in the first nine months of this year, which is close to the figure dealt with in the same period in 2008.

Needs a sourceArchive 2008–2016
Sex Trafficking2009

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 2009

United Arab Emirates AE

According to Captain Bin Hadibah, the major human trafficking case handled by Dubai Police this year was the escape of four Bangladeshi victims in their early twenties who were severely abused, both physically and sexually.The four victims were brought into the country at different periods with most of them forced into prostitution for two months before making their escape during May of this year. They were beaten and repeatedly sexually assaulted by a gang composed of five men and a woman, as an extreme measure to coerce them into prostitution. The suspects were recently arrested — bar one, as he is still on the run. Most convicted traffickers in Dubai as well as their victims are Asian, with some from Eastern Europe, and their ages range from 18 to 26 years old.

Needs a sourceArchive 2008–2016
Sex Trafficking2009

Dubai Al-Harmud Hotel, United Arab Emirates, 2009

United Arab Emirates AE

unknown what happened but the victim testified in court. She said: “I visited several clients of different nationalities in the Al-Harmud Hotel and had sex with them. I was in an impossible situation…” she said. Her passport had been taken, she couldn’t speak the language, and she didn’t have any money.

1 sourceArchive 2008–2016
Forced Labor2006

Dubai, UAE, United Arab Emirates, 2006

United Arab Emirates AE

The UAE's huge construction boom of recent years has been fuelled largely by south Asian migrant construction workers, who work in the grimmest of circumstances. Human Rights Watch estimated in 2006 that at least half a million migrants are paid a little over £100 a month for their work in a country where the average per capita monthly income is close to £1,300. There is no indication that their circumstances have improved since. Migrants can end up working 12 hours a day or longer, six days a week, in fierce heat. In 2005, the Indian Consulate registered 971 deaths of its own nationals, at which point it was told to stop counting. Suicide among the men is rife, with 100 or more of them dying by their own hands in 2007. Such conditions come as a grim surprise for newcomers lured by agencies with promises of lavish pay, only to find their passports confiscated, wages slashed and huge debts owed. And they form a sharp contrast to the lives of the wealthy western ex-pats in finance, IT and tourism – 50,000 to 150,000 of them, on vast tax-free salaries. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/sacked-by-text-the-indian-workers-who-built-dubai-1831651.html

1 sourceArchive 2008–2016