2007 Trafficking in Persons Report - Center for Women Policy Studies

ing government officials, including the Ministers of
Interior and Family, Youth, and Sports, took part in
events to raise awareness of trafficking. The government
provided expertise and free advertising on
radio and TV stations, and experts from the State
Employment Service provided callers to the national
anti-trafficking toll-free telephone hotline with
information on legal employment overseas.
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
(Tier 2 Watch List)
The United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) remains a destination
country for men and women trafficked for the
purpose of involuntary servitude and commercial
sexual exploitation. Women from India, Sri Lanka,
Bangladesh, Indonesia, Ethiopia, and the Philippines
migrate willingly to the U.A.E. to work as domestic
servants, but many face conditions of involuntary
servitude such as excessive work hours without
pay; verbal, mental, physical, and sexual abuse;
and restrictions on movement. Similarly, men from
India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Pakistan come to
the U.A.E. to work in the construction industry, but
are often subjected to involuntary servitude and debt
bondage as they work to pay off recruitment costs
sometimes exceeding two years’ wages. Women from
Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan,
Armenia, Azerbaijan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Uganda,
India, Pakistan, the People’s Republic of China, the
Philippines, Iraq, Iran, and Morocco are reportedly
trafficked to the U.A.E. for commercial sexual
exploitation. Some foreign women were reportedly
recruited to work as secretaries, but were trafficked
into forced prostitution or domestic servitude. The
U.A.E. may also serve as a transit country for women
trafficked into forced labor in Oman and Sudan, and
men deceived into working involuntarily in Iraq.
Although children were previously trafficked from
South Asia, Sudan, and Mauritania as child camel
jockeys, all identified victims were repatriated at the
U.A.E.’s expense.
The Government of the U.A.E. does not fully
comply with the minimum standards for the
elimination of trafficking, but is making significant
efforts to do so. U.A.E. is placed on Tier 2 Watch
list for a second consecutive year for failing to take
meaningful steps to address the problem of foreign
women trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation
and of foreign male and female workers
subjected to conditions of involuntary servitude.
The government did not demonstrate vigorous
law enforcement or victim protection efforts. The
U.A.E. should dedicate resources for the prosecution
of trafficking crimes, while encouraging victims
to testify against their traffickers, and giving them
alternatives to detention and deportation.
Prosecution
Although in December 2006 the U.A.E. government
passed a comprehensive anti-trafficking law prohibiting
all forms of trafficking, with prescribed penalties
ranging from one year to life imprisonment,
no other progress was reported in prosecuting and
punishing trafficking crimes. The government did
not prosecute any cases under this law or any other
available law, including statutes against withholding
passports, false imprisonment, and kidnapping.
Although the Ministry of Labor imposed fines on
labor recruiters for fraudulent practices, the government
did not pursue criminal prosecutions of those
facilitating trafficking. The government also did
not provide evidence that it prosecuted employers
for intimidating employees to force them to work.
Government officials, however, actively monitored
camel races to ensure that children were not used
as camel jockeys in violation of the country’s 2005
ban. The Dubai police also organized a workshop
on investigating trafficking. The U.A.E. should
significantly increase criminal investigations of trafficking
offenses, including involuntary servitude of
foreign workers, and should stringently punish sex
traffickers and abusive employers and labor recruiters
who engage in labor trafficking through the use
of force or fraud.
Protection
The U.A.E. government made limited progress in
protecting trafficking victims this year. The government
continues to detain and deport victims for
unlawful acts committed as a result of being trafficked.
Although some women are trafficked to the
U.A.E. for commercial sexual exploitation, some are
forced into prostitution after their arrival, and others
enter prostitution willingly but encounter coercion
or force afterwards. Victims who voluntarily enter the
U.A.E. with the intent of entering the sex trade are
treated as criminals regardless of any victimization
that occurs after their arrival. Similarly, the U.A.E.
does not consider laborers forced into involuntary
servitude as trafficking victims if they are over the
age of 18 and entered the country voluntarily. Many
cases of forced labor are therefore not investigated.
There are no formal mechanisms to identify women
who are trafficked into domestic servitude or prostitution,
or men who are trafficked into bonded laborers.
Women who formally identify themselves as
trafficking victims may access government provided
U N I T E D A R A B E M I R AT E S
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