Country
Modern slavery in United Arab Emirates
6 documented cases recorded in United Arab Emirates, 2006–2023. Locations are deliberately generalized to protect survivors.
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
South Asian construction workers held in labor camps. Passports confiscated wages withheld threatened with deportation extreme heat conditions Accused: Construction subcontractor.
Raffa, Dubai, UAE, United Arab Emirates
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.
Dubai Al-Harmud Hotel, United Arab Emirates
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.
Al Baraha, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
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.
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
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.
Dubai, UAE, United Arab Emirates
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