migrant women in the United Arab Emirates

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Even though no official information is available on trafficking, one could make some observations based on discussions with journalists, lawyers and public figures who do agree that trafficking is practiced undercover. Trafficking women for prostitution is practiced under the cover of other categories of migration, especially under the category of domestics. The loose federal and tribal structure of United Arab Emirates society could play a role in easing the way to possible traffickers. This very structure which gives rulers of each of the seven Emirates (originally tribal rulers) a sense of ultimate autonomy, works contrary to the image of unity and integration, the country attempt to portray. Each head of the seven Emirates like to act as the ultimate authority over his own sheikhdom or Emirate which sometimes result in a high permeability of federal laws and regulations that are not implemented as similarly in the whole country. In few Emirates, specifically the ones with low oil resources such as Ajman, illegal acts are thought to take place without much Federal control. Because of its proximity (15 minutes drive) to Dubai (United Arab Emirates business centre), its inexpensive rental dwellings and the looseness of its regulations, Ajman is considered “heaven” to illegal immigrants and their agents. Attempting to find documented information on this issue is dangerous. It is useful, in this context, to look at the raw statistics of the immigration office 11 (see table 8 below) on domestic workers in Dubai, which seem to raise questions if all of the nationalities reported in the domestic sector really are domestic workers and not employed in other sectors of the economy. While, of course, no generalized statements can be made, it would be useful to examine to what extent these numbers really cover men and women workers, legally employed in the domestic service, or whether they could also represent workers who entered the country with a visa to work as domestics, but who are in practice employed in other sectors, including the sex industry. Table 8: Dubai: statistics on domestic workers, by nationality and sex Nationality 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 Companion Total Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Ethiopia 0 84 0 180 2 337 6 684 3 216 0 1’512 Azerbaijan 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 Eritrea 0 2 2 4 1 11 1 10 0 4 0 35 Australia 2 2 1 1 8 2 17 3 3 2 0 41 Afghanistan 5 0 6 0 7 0 12 0 4 0 0 34 Argentina 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 3 Jordan 3 1 6 0 3 2 3 3 2 1 40 64 Brazil 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 Algeria 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 5 Denmark 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 Senegal 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 Sudan 49 0 68 2 86 2 111 6 25 2 189 540 Sweden 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 11 Note that the Migration Department explained in an interview that the statistics were still very preliminary and needed to be revised. 14 UAE Working Paper_1
Nationality 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 Companion Total Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female Somalia 2 2 0 2 1 0 1 1 0 0 5 14 China 0 0 1 1 1 2 3 8 0 1 0 17 Iraq 1 0 1 0 2 1 3 3 2 0 0 13 Philippines 20 489 30 744 27 1’140 65 1’959 15 513 0 5’002 Germany 0 1 1 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 5 Morocco 4 17 2 12 3 20 4 33 1 8 0 104 Mexico 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 Austria 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 3 India 1’501 1’056 1’907 1’297 2’246 1’372 3’776 1’923 572 152 149 15’951 Japan 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 Yemen 6 2 4 1 8 1 9 2 5 0 34 72 USA 5 1 1 0 5 2 4 3 0 0 0 21 Indonesia 2 358 3 828 9 1’855 39 3’298 6 1083 4 7’485 Uzbekistan 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 5 Ukraine 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 Iran 68 7 62 6 69 5 115 4 38 4 146 524 Ireland 13 1 7 4 9 2 20 7 3 1 0 67 Italy 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 3 Pakistan 1’078 33 1’309 38 1’335 41 2’034 42 377 15 701 7’003 England 19 6 15 6 24 10 43 20 4 3 2 152 Belgium 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 3 Bulgaria 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 Bangladesh 585 70 589 102 598 149 678 316 81 14 376 3’558 Panama 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 Benin 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 Burkina Faso 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 Burma 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 2 Poland 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 Peru 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 2 Thailand 0 3 0 5 0 2 0 8 0 3 0 21 Turkey 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 Chad 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 Tanzania 0 2 0 1 4 10 2 9 1 4 10 43 Tunisia 0 1 1 1 0 0 2 1 0 0 0 6 Jamaica 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 Guinea 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 South Africa 2 0 1 0 2 0 4 2 2 0 0 13 UAE Working Paper_1 15
Page 1: GENPROM Working Paper No. 10 Series
Page 5 and 6: Contents Page Foreword.............
Page 7: Acknowledgements A special thank yo
Page 10 and 11: 1. Overview of the socio-economic c
Page 12 and 13: Table 2: Changes in the workforce (
Page 14 and 15: Table 4: Economically active people
Page 16 and 17: United Arab Emirates citizenship is
Page 18 and 19: Table 6: Domestic workers in the Un
Page 20 and 21: 2. A growing trend of foreign femal
Page 24 and 25: Nationality 1997 1998 1999 2000 200
Page 26 and 27: 3. The situation of women migrant w
Page 28 and 29: exercises. Happily, the foreign fem
Page 30 and 31: Households where more than one lang
Page 32 and 33: in their home countries. One of the
Page 34 and 35: Benefits Generosity is a strong soc
Page 36 and 37: itself 22 . The least frequently re
Page 38 and 39: The second Filippina seemed very co
Page 40 and 41: 4. Structural and legislative frame
Page 42 and 43: Legal context As stated previously,
Page 44 and 45: employment of the foreign female do
Page 46 and 47: 5. Private initiatives for protecti
Page 48 and 49: Three domestics were interviewed th
Page 50 and 51: 6. Institutional framework 6.1. Bod
Page 52 and 53: 6.7. Migrant workers’ assessment
Page 54 and 55: Embassies and labour offices level
Page 56 and 57: ILO Programs and studies The ILO ne
Page 58 and 59: Goodson, Rodger. 1993. “The Attra
Page 61 and 62: Appendix 1 Profile of the foreign f

migrant women in the United Arab Emirates

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