Trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation is also an issue in the UAE. Women and children from Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, China, Eritrea, Ethiopia, India, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Morocco, Pakistan, the Philippines, Russia, Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan are trafficked to the UAE for this purpose. Some women accept positions as hotel employees or secretaries but then are forced into domestic servitude or prostitution (U.S. Department of State, 2008, 2010; UNODC, 2009). It is challenging to determine the exact country breakdown and respective percentages of persons trafficked to the UAE for sexual exploitation, but in 2005 and 2006 the majority (57.1 percent) of identified sex-trafficking victims were from Uzbekistan. Other significant areas of origin were Moldova (17.9 percent) and South Asia (10.7 percent) (UNODC, 2009).
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It is estimated that roughly 30 percent of the estimated 200 Tajik women in prostitution in the UAE are victims of trafficking. There are also media reports of Iraqi families who knowingly sold their teenage daughters to other Iraqi residents in the UAE for forced prostitution (U.S. Department of State, 2010). In the case of one Iraqi 15-year-old, her father sold her into domestic servitude but instead she was forced into the Dubai sex trade. Her father was given a $6,000 advance payment by a trafficking ring member and promised that his daughter would be returned after completing a one-year contract. “I was a virgin and didn’t understand what sex was,” the girl told Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), the humanitarian news and analysis service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. “I was told that they [the traffickers] were going to get good money for my first night with an old local man who paid for my virginity. He was aggressive and hit me all the time” (IRIN, 2006). In order to deter her from running away, her traffickers threatened the young Iraqi girl daily. She managed to escape and return to Baghdad, where she was placed in the care of the Organization for Women’s Freedom in Iraq, an NGO.
WHAT HAPPENS TO VICTIMS AFTER TRAFFICKING
The UAE government identified roughly 80 sex-trafficking victims in 2009. Government funds were used to repatriate 30 of the victims; the remaining 50 victims were offered comprehensive services in government-run shelters in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. In 2010 the Abu Dhabi shelter assisted 71 victims of sex trafficking, and the Dubai shelter assisted 49 victims of sex trafficking. The next year, 2011, the number of victims assisted by the two shelters decreased to 29 and 19, respectively. The government opened shelters for female and child victims of trafficking and abuse in Sharjah and Ras al-Khaimah in January 2011. The facilities provided comprehensive services—medical and psychological care, case management, immigration and legal support, educational and vocational training—to female and child victims of trafficking. No victims of forced labor were provided shelter, counseling, or immigration relief by the government (U.S. Department of State, 2010, 2011, 2012; NCCHT, 2010).
In 2011 the Ministry of Interior implemented new victim identification procedures whereby designated personnel at police stations implement operating procedures to identify victims of sex and labor trafficking. The government still has no formal procedures for proactively identifying potential victims among vulnerable populations. Consequently, unidentified victims are often arrested, punished, and deported for crimes associated with their trafficking experience such as prostitution and immigration violations. For instance, persons over the age of 18 are commonly not recognized as victims of forced labor, particularly if they entered the country voluntarily. As a result, if they run away from their sponsor they can face arrest and deportation for immigration violations. Also, women who knowingly found employment in prostitution but faced debt bondage after arrival are often treated as criminals not victims (Noueihed, 2008; U.S. Department of State, 2008, 2010; 2012).
WHAT HAPPENS TO TRAFFICKERS
Under Federal Law No. 51, those who are found guilty of trafficking face imprisonment ranging from one year to life. In 2007, 15 persons were prosecuted and convicted of sex trafficking. Sentences ranged from 9 months to 10 years’ imprisonment. In 2009, prosecutions of 36 trafficking cases were initiated. Sentences ranged from one year to life imprisonment (U.S. Department of State, 2008, 2010). Dr. Gargash says the rising number of registered human trafficking cases in the UAE—37 cases in 2011, 58 in 2010, and 43 in 2009, compared to 20 cases in 2008—reflects the country’s progress since Federal Law No. 51 was introduced (Sambidge, 2010; U.S. Department of State, 2011, 2012). Yet despite the prevalence of forced labor, investigations and prosecutions are focused primarily on sex trafficking. Only one recruitment agent was referred for prosecution in 2007, and there were no reports of convictions or punishments associated with forced labor (U.S. Department of State, 2008). In 2009 and 2010 there were no investigations, prosecutions, or convictions for forced-labor offenses. In its 2011–2012 report the UAE government reported the ongoing prosecution of one forced-labor case, and in January 2011 two women were charged with forced-labor offenses—they allegedly forced a woman to work in a massage parlor.
As in many other nations, some persons manage to behave with impunity. For instance, the royal family appears to have carte blanche when it comes to illicit conduct. In addition to an alleged instance of torture, it is suspected that 8 family members of the royal family of Abu Dhabi placed 17 people in forced servitude while in Brussels. Belgian authorities are investigating the case, but the UAE does not appear to have an investigation (HRW, 2010a; U.S. Department of State, 2010, 2011, 2012).
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The majority (53.8 percent) of convicted traffickers in the UAE in 2005 and 2006 were from South Asia. Other significant regions of origin were eastern Europe and Central Asia (23.1 percent). A significantly lower percentage (11.5 percent) were citizens of the UAE (UNODC, 2009).
INTERNAL EFFORTS TO DECREASE TRAFFICKING
In 2008 General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, deputy supreme commander of the UAE armed forces and crown prince of Abu Dhabi, donated $15 million to fund the United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking (UNODC, 2011). According to Gargash, the donation is in line with the UAE’s commitment to set up a forum “which includes countries, UN agencies, governmental agencies, and [the] non-governmental sector to work together under one umbrella to create unprecedented cooperation in the international community” (UAE Interact, 2008). The UAE government has taken measures to improve anti-trafficking cooperation with source nations. For instance, on December 5, 2009, the governments of the UAE and Armenia signed a bilateral memorandum of understanding on combatting trafficking in persons (UNODC, 2009). This should help improve cooperation between the two nations’ law-enforcement agencies on joint cases of trafficking. Within the UAE, the government has increased its training of police on how to identify human trafficking when investigating prostitution cases. Ideally, this step will help to decrease the number of sex-trafficking victims arrested and punished for crimes that occur as a result of their trafficking experience. In addition, in June 2010 the government announced its decision to establish two new shelters in Sharjah and Ras al-Khaimah (Gulf News, 2010), which opened in January 2011. The shelters, however, are solely for women and child victims of human trafficking and sexual exploitation (U.S. Department of State, 2010). Along these same lines, in October 2010 Judge Ahmed Ibrahim Saif announced that Dubai would establish a special court solely designed to hear sex-trafficking cases. The court would give priority to the victims by hearing their testimonies in the first session of the trial and would assist them in returning to their homeland. “The main reason for setting up the court is to protect the interests of the victims and to mitigate the damage inflicted upon them due to such crimes,” Saif said. “All the cases referred to the court will concern sexual exploitation and not other forms of trafficking such as forced labor, which means the exploitation of others without pay, or slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.” The court was established in November 2010 (Emarat Al Youm, 2010; U.S. Department of State, 2011).
In order to help eliminate debt bondage, the Ministry of Labor announced in October 2007 that foreign workers must be paid via an electronic wage deposit system that can be kept under surveillance. The system has been sustained and continues to expand. It allows the migrant sponsorship program to be monitored by creating an electronic record of direct salary payments. All companies were required to use this system by May 2010. Those companies not in compliance face a prohibition on new hiring. In March 2010, roughly 800 companies that had not complied with the November 30, 2009, deadline were barred from hiring new workers. In order to further tackle labor violations and human trafficking, on November 7, 2006, Prime Minister Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum issued a decree ordering that 2,000 more government labor inspectors be hired. The government hired more than 200 labor inspectors in 2007, bringing the total number of inspectors to around 425 (nowhere near the 2,000 ordered by decree). And in March 2010 the Ministry of Labor announced the formation of a new unit to identify and investigate potential labor-trafficking cases (U.S. Department of State, 2008, 2010; HRW, 2009). In January 2012 the UAE Cabinet of Ministers approved a draft law to protect the rights of domestic workers. The proposed law, according to
Gulf News
, will provide domestic workers with a paid day off per week, two weeks of paid annual leave, holidays, and 15 paid sick days. There are concerns over some aspects of the proposed law, such as that domestic workers who reveal the secrets of their employers are liable to prosecution and penalties (including imprisonment), and that harsh criminal sentences will be imposed on those who encourage a domestic worker to quit her job or offer her shelter. The Federal National Council must approve the legislation before President Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan can sign it into law (HRW, 2012).
For many years children were trafficked into the UAE from Sudan, Bangladesh, Mauritania, and Pakistan to be camel jockeys. These young jockeys often sustained significant injuries from falling off the camels, which can run as fast as 18.64 miles per hour. In June 2005 the UAE imposed a minimum legal age of 18 for camel jockeys. Those found guilty of violating this law face imprisonment of up to three years and/or a fine of $13,670. In April 2007 the government of the UAE along with the governments of Bangladesh, Sudan, Pakistan, Mauritania, and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) signed a memorandum of understanding in order to compensate and assist those children formerly involved in camel racing in the UAE (IRIN, 2007). The initiative between UNICEF and the UAE resulted in the return of more than 1,000 child jockeys to their home countries, primarily Pakistan. The UAE also allocated an initial $9 million toward integrating and rehabilitating child camel jockeys in their countries of origin (IRIN, 2007). “The integration includes providing the basic services for these children: health services, education services, and protection services,” Dr. Ayman Abu Laban, the UNICEF representative for the Gulf countries, told IRIN. “The idea is to give back to these children some of what they’ve missed from their childhood. At the same time, to give their families a better means of livelihood so they don’t have to send children for further exploitation by child traffickers” (IRIN, 2007).
Today the UAE government continues to fund the UNICEF program to provide rehabilitation assistance to repatriated child jockeys (U.S. Department of State, 2010). Of course, the question remains whether the use of children as camel jockeys has actually stopped.
The Independent
reported in 2010 that the practice continues. Photos show the use of underage camel jockeys (some as young as 10 years old) at a February 2010 race in Abu Dhabi. “We are concerned that the fact the race was attended by the police and UAE dignitaries means that child protection is not being taken seriously,” Catherine Turner, a child labor expert at Anti-Slavery International, told
The Independent
(Peachey, 2010).
Despite the prevalence of labor trafficking, the UAE’s anti-trafficking efforts continue to focus primarily on commercial sexual exploitation. Although forced-labor victims are technically considered trafficking victims under Federal Law No. 51, in practice, identified victims are not provided with shelter, counseling, or immigration relief, nor are they encouraged to participate as witnesses against their employers. Furthermore, victims of forced labor who run away from their sponsors can face arrest and deportation for immigration violations.
PART II
Stateless Persons
“Statelessness” describes people who are not nationals of any country. Forced to exist outside the framework of society, those without citizenship or legal status are unable to access government benefits such as health care and education. If travel and movement within the nation are restricted, stateless persons are hindered from applying for jobs outside of where they live
.
This is a significant issue in Thailand, where an estimated 50 percent of the one million hill tribe people lack citizenship, despite the fact that they were born in the nation. Without national identity, members of the hill tribes are marginalized; do not have equal opportunity to health care, property rights, or education; and often face discrimination. Without access to the formal labor market for employment, they are vulnerable to a litany of human rights abuses that include human trafficking, unsafe migration, exploitative labor, sexual exploitation, and an increased risk of HIV infection. The lack of protections not only increases their vulnerability to trafficking but also fails to adequately aid hill tribe victims afterward. For instance, if trafficked outside Thailand, hill tribe people without proof of citizenship may be denied reentry into Thailand
.