Human Trafficking in [United Arab Emirates Street Children in [United Arab Emirates] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [United Arab Emirates] [other countries] |
Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery United Arab Emirates (UAE) [ Country-by-Country
Reports ] The 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. - U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons
Report, June, 2007 [full country report] |
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CAUTION: The following links have been culled
from the web to illuminate the situation in the ***
FEATURED ARTICLES *** Human trafficking from Armenia to Dubai, UAE when she arrived in Abu Dhabi she was taken to a brothel where a pimp told her that he had bought her for $7000. From that moment on she was to work as a prostitute until she paid off her so-called debt. After three months of captivity, Tanya managed to escape. She bolted to a police station and recounted her story. Incredibly, she was charged with prostitution and sentenced to three years in a desert prison. In 2001, psychologically crushed and ashamed, Tanya was released. Nothing happened to her pimp. Branded a prostitute by the Muslim nation, she was summarily deported back to her Ukraine. Stress on global network to fight human trafficking A teacher in her home country, Noora says she was tempted by the promise of a good job and salary in Dubai. It was the first time that she had ever left her home country and her job and visa were arranged by a man she was put in contact with by a friend from her home town. In her early 20's at the time, Noora was told to expect a representative from the school where she was to work to collect her from the airport. Instead, she was met by a couple who took her to their home in Sharjah and locked her inside a room in a high-rise. "The first couple of days were a blur. I kept asking when I was starting my job. The wife laughed and said there is no school - that I had to work as a prostitute," she remembers. "I was terrified and couldn't do anything. I was powerless." Kidnapped Children Starve As Camel Jockey Slaves As many as 5,000 children, some as
young as two, have been kidnapped or bought from their parents in the Indian
sub-continent and Africa as part of a quest by camel trainers to gain the
edge over their racing rivals. Human trafficking
from Iran to Gulf Shiekhdoms A group of Iranian boys and girls
will be sold in an auction today in Fojeyreh, United Arab Emirates. At a
round table discussion on human trafficking held yesterday (at the office of)
the Young Iranian Society news agency, it was announced that the preparations
for this auction were made two weeks before by hunters of Iranian women and
girls in the course of an international exhibition… The human hunters were able to
choose 54 Iranian girls out of the 286 that were put on show in an Arab
country's booth. They were then sent to a Persian Gulf country on May 17 to
get ready for the Fojeyreh auction on May 26…. ***
ARCHIVES *** Bur of Democracy,
Human Rights & Labor - Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005 TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS – The government
made significant progress toward eliminating the practice of trafficking in
young foreign boys as camel jockeys, which until March had been a serious
problem for many years. On July 5, President Khalifa promulgated a federal
law that prohibits persons below age 18 from participating in camel races and
subjects violators to imprisonment and financial penalties. The government
also worked with UNICEF, source country embassies, and NGOs to rescue,
rehabilitate, and repatriate approximately 1,034 children who had worked as
camel jockeys. By year's end, an additional 39 children were in the remaining
rehabilitation shelter awaiting repatriation. During the year, there were a
number of media reports of trafficking in women and girls into the country,
especially to Law enforcement, particularly in Bur of Democracy,
Human Rights & Labor - Country Reports on Human Rights
Practices - 2004 TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS – There
was an increasing number of media reports during the year of trafficking in
women and girls to the country, especially to In July 2003, the Government
banned the widespread practice of sponsors forcing workers to surrender their
passports as a condition of employment. However, the practice reportedly
continued to be widespread. Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) - 2002 [40] Despite noting some efforts
by the State party, the Committee is seriously concerned at the hazardous
situation of children involved in camel racing. In particular it is concerned
that: sometimes very young children are involved; are trafficked,
particularly from Africa and South Asia; are denied education and healthcare;
and that such involvement produces serious injuries, even fatalities. It
concurs with the ILO Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions
and Recommendations which has previously indicated to the State party that
the employment of children as camel jockeys constitutes dangerous work under
article 3(1) of ILO Convention no. 138, concerning the minimum age for
admission to employment. Human
Rights Watch questions Guggenheim museum labor "Our laws are tougher than
anyone else's in the Mideast," Al Kaabi said at the time. "But the
lack of inspectors means sometimes we don't see these problems." The United Arab Emirates already
has issued laws addressing many of the abuses in the Human Rights Watch
report: workers' salaries and passports held back by companies, dangerous
working conditions, shady labor agents whose fees keep workers locked in debt
and labor law enforcers beholden to connected companies, not to workers. The United Arab Emirates' ruler,
Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, also announced tough penalties, up to life
imprisonment, against trafficking in humans, which has illegally taken
domestic servants, prostitutes and even child camel race jockeys into the
country. Whitson called the changes
"cosmetic" and said the problem needed to be addressed systemically. Dubai's
Promised Land of Luxury Lures Women Into Sexual Slavery Fei Fei, a 22-year-old from
China's Guangdong province, has a souvenir of her eight months in Dubai:
burns on her back and arms from cigarette butts crushed against her skin when
she refused to work as a prostitute.
She eventually submitted when a criminal gang threatened to send nude
photos of her to family members. That indignity, she said, would have been
worse than selling her body. ``They
take pictures of me naked in shower,'' Fei Fei said in broken English as she
pulled up her shirt to reveal the dark red circular marks. Soon afterward,
she adopted the English name ``Lucy,'' and sold sex in Dubai bars for 500
dirhams ($130) a trick to claw back her freedom. ABJECT
SLAVERY -
The need of the
hour is not a blame game played out by certain media entities and individuals
who claim the moral high ground but of adopting a sensitive awareness to stop
unscrupulous traders in their tracks. Groups and individuals need to
synergise to help reluctant victims shed inhibitions and expose their
tormentors. This can be achieved not only through empowerment of non
governmental organisations but also by enlisting the help of taxi drivers to
expose the city's vice dens. It is also important to be aware
of the extent we end up practising such acts, unknowingly, by imposing
unreasonable hours and endless work loads on our household helpers. Fight
against human trafficking stepped up PREVENTIVE MEASURES - The chief public prosecutor
Mansour Abdullah who questioned the suspects said: "The victims worked
as housemaids before they abandoned their sponsor. "They met S.F. who promised to hire them
and kept them in a flat. An unidentified suspect [who is still at large]
aided S.F. to confine the girls in the flat and forced them to have sex with
customers." Abdullah said they
beat and tortured the girls every time they refused to have sex with customers. [Editor’s note: the suspects who were charged were Asian] From the
arc lights of Vadapalani to dance bars of Dubai and back Meenakshi was once a bubbly girl
who worked in the film studios of Chennai. After finishing her eighth year in
school, she followed in her father’s footsteps and become a junior artist in
films. Beautiful and fair, Meenakshi received a lot of attention on the sets.
Meenakshi had befriended two middle-aged female dancers who had told her she
could go to Dubai and earn a lot of money as a dancer. They had also told her
she could meet filmmakers there whom she could impress with her dancing.
Persuaded by them, Meenakshi, her eyes filled with dreams, set off for
Dubai. Less than two months later, she
returned in a wheel chair, a mere shadow of the woman she was and unable to
tell anyone what had happened to her. Dubai's top prosecutor has hailed
15-year prison sentences handed yesterday to a couple for human trafficking -
the first ever convictions for the crime in the UAE. The two Indians bought
their female victim for just dhs4,300 and forced her into prostitution before
attempting to sell her on. Two plead
innocent to human trafficking charges A housemaid and a driver are pleading
innocent against the human trafficking of an Indonesian female even though
they were caught red-handed trying to sell her to a policeman. "The Indians then sold me for
Dh4,300 to T.S. and M.K. who forced me into prostitution," she said in
her statement. They used to pocket the
sex customer's money for themselves and the 29-year-old used 'to beat and
abuse me', she alleged. Meanwhile, the Public Prosecution
is currently looking into the third case of its kind. Two Indians suspects are believed to have
sold two housemaids, a 23-year-old Bangladeshi and a 33-year-old Indonesian,
for Dh9,000 and were forcing them into prostitution. Human
trafficking from Armenia to Dubai, UAE when she arrived in Abu Dhabi she
was taken to a brothel where a pimp told her that he had bought her for
$7000. From that moment on she was to work as a prostitute until she paid off
her so-called debt. After three months of captivity, Tanya managed to escape.
She bolted to a police station and recounted her story. Incredibly, she was
charged with prostitution and sentenced to three years in a desert prison. In
2001, psychologically crushed and ashamed, Tanya was released. Nothing happened
to her pimp. Branded a prostitute by the Muslim nation, she was summarily
deported back to her Ukraine. Private
sector 'can help combat human trafficking' He said T.S. and M.K. used the
victim's poverty to subjugate and exploit her into working in the sex
industry unwillingly. "The couple bought her from an unidentified person
for Dh4,300 after she reportedly abandoned her sponsor. When she refused to
have sex with customers, she got brutally beaten by the female suspect,"
said the Attorney General. New study shames human traffickers Countries in the Middle East have
been named as the worst culprits of human trafficking. A new report by an international
trade unions’ umbrella organisation says Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen are
notorious destinations for women trafficked from Kenya. Its report, ‘Trafficking in Persons
— The Eastern Africa Situation’, notes that women and children were favourite
targets for well-organised trafficking rings, which operate freely for lack
of solid laws against the vice. Stress on
global network to fight human trafficking A teacher in her home country,
Noora says she was tempted by the promise of a good job and salary in Dubai.
It was the first time that she had ever left her home country and her job and
visa were arranged by a man she was put in contact with by a friend from her
home town. In her early 20's at the time,
Noora was told to expect a representative from the school where she was to
work to collect her from the airport. Instead, she was met by a couple who
took her to their home in Sharjah and locked her inside a room in a
high-rise. "The first couple of days
were a blur. I kept asking when I was starting my job. The wife laughed and
said there is no school - that I had to work as a prostitute," she remembers.
"I was terrified and couldn't do anything. I was powerless." Trafficking
– Serious Problem for Azerbaijan Victim of human trafficking told how she found herself within the net
of criminal elements - Rafiga understood that she was deceived. But as her neighbor had
her passport she tried to persuade “mama Rosa” to give back her document.
However, woman told that Rafiga is her debtor as her marriage and ticket
purchase were very expensive. “I will return your passport when you work a
debt out, and you will be free”, “mama Rosa told”. UAE
: Probe begins into Indian Human Trafficking Racket The 54 year-old visitor identified
as A.K.S, 50, and his wife identified as M.S, were waiting for a connecting
flight to Paris when they were arrested. They were reportedly carrying fake
passports of two young boys accompanying them. The data recorded in the passports
of the two minors showed them to be the sons of the accused but upon
questioning, the couple denied being the parents, claiming they had been asked
by some people in Mumbai to hand over the children to someone in Paris. Dahi:
Tough law will help fight all other forms of trafficking He warned that thousands of people
in the country could be traffickers without them knowing it. "They are
not aware that the way they treat their domestic servants such as denying
them communication with others, toying with their salaries, as well as the
illegal tricks employed by labour companies constitute servitude." Life
term for human trafficking under new federal law The Ministerial Legislative
Committee (MLC) here approved yesterday an anti-human trafficking federal
draft law. A life-imprisonment term is
to be slapped against anyone implicated in any of the crimes of human
trafficking, such as sexual exploitation, forced labour, slavery, or any
malpractices of the kind, the draft law stipulates. Kyrgyz
Police Halt Flight To U.A.E. On Trafficking Suspicion One, a resident of Samarkand, said
that she was traveling to work in a restaurant in Dubai. But another woman, a
17-year-old from Ferghana, said that she was going to the U.A.E. to work as a
prostitute. The woman cited a lack of alternative employment opportunities in
Uzbekistan as the reasons for her decision. Country Reports - Turkmenistan ARTICLE 6 - TRAFFICKING AND
PROSTITUTION [40] -
“Because getting out of Turkmenistan is difficult,” she said, “I allowed
myself to be smuggled out of here via Iran, but I was told I would have a
good job working for an Arab family in Dubai.” After an arduous road
journey across Iran and a Gulf crossing by boat, she found herself working in
a Russian syndicate-run brothel in Dubai. “It was horrific. I
worked all night, every night, for six days, and was beaten if I refused to
perform,” she added tearfully. “I know I was stupid,” she added, “but
there’s nothing, nothing, nothing for us here.” Kidnapped
Children Starve As Camel Jockey Slaves As many as 5,000 children, some as young as two, have been kidnapped or bought from their parents in the Indian sub-continent and Africa as part of a quest by camel trainers to gain the edge over their racing rivals. Camel
Jockeys Trying To Recover Lost Childhood Both the UAE and Children from Pakistan, Bangladesh
and Sudan are still being smuggled to the United Arab Emirates to work as
camel jockeys, despite a law passed two years ago banning their use. It is not uncommon for child jockeys to
fall off and be injured while racing, and their illegal status means race
track owners are often reluctant to take them to hospital. Instead, says Ansar Burney, the boys often
arrive with broken hands or broken legs. And many, he says, have been
sodomised. Missing
Girl Rescued By A Journalist “They forced me into
prostitution,” Priya said after she was rescued, according to a friend. “I
was beaten up several times and finally had to give in to their demands. We
were being shifted to a different flat every two days. The customers used to
pay dhs50, which the agents used to collect. It was a real hell out there.” UAE : HORRENDOUS RECORD OF CHILD SLAVERY - WORK WORRIES - Sri Lankan women are trafficked to Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar, mainly as sex workers or for forced labor. Freedom
House Country Report - Political Rights: 6 Civil Liberties: 6 Status: Not Free Human Rights Overview by Human
Rights Watch – Defending Human Rights Worldwide U.S. Library of Congress
- Country Study Slavery
of Children and women in Persian gulf countries One of the fastest growing means
by which children are enslaved today is trafficking. Girls as young as six
are trafficked to work as maids in UAE and Saudi Arabia. Men and women and
children live and work as slaves or in slave-like conditions. The sexual
enslavement of children is part of the generation exploitation of children in
impoverished parts of the world. Corruption
is Limiting Kazakhstan’s Efforts Against Human Trafficking Most citizens of Kazakhstan who
fall victim to human trafficking are sent to the United Arab Emirates, though
some have been sent to western Europe, Israel. And Saudi Arabia. Human trafficking
from Iran to Gulf Shiekhdoms A group of Iranian boys and girls
will be sold in an auction today in Fojeyreh, United Arab Emirates. At a round
table discussion on human trafficking held yesterday (at the office of) the
Young Iranian Society news agency, it was announced that the preparations for
this auction were made two weeks before by hunters of Iranian women and girls
in the course of an international exhibition… The human hunters were able to
choose 54 Iranian girls out of the 286 that were put on show in an Arab
country's booth. They were then sent to a Persian Gulf country on May 17 to
get ready for the Fojeyreh auction on May 26…. Leader
of Tajik prostitution ring jailed for selling young women to Emirates The leader of a prostitution ring
in Tajikistan has been jailed for three-and-a-half years for sending young
women to the United Arab Emirates to work forcibly in the sex trade, the
trial judge told AFP Monday. Anvar
Rakhmatov was arrested in October last year in the north of this impoverished
former Soviet Central Asian republic as he was about to put three young women
on a flight to Dubai. "Over the last four years,
this criminal group transported young women to the United Arab Emirates, and
upon their arrival, took their passports and forced them to work as
prostitutes," the judge said. 'Modern-Day
Slavery' Prompts Rescue Efforts Halla forbade Muka from bathing
because "she did not want my germs in the shower," Muka wrote.
Halla often slapped her and kicked her while wearing boots and shoes. Once, Halla noticed a scratch on the baby's
nose. "She pulled a knife out of the drawer and demonstrated pulling the
knife across her throat as if to slice it," Muka wrote. "While she
was doing this, she looked at me and said that if a scratch occurred again,
she would kill me." Halla
confiscated her passport and told her "bad people" would hurt her
if she ever left, according to Muka's statement. Muka said she imagined
government officials tracking her down. Department of Homeland Security
immigration officials were able to track the diplomat, but he had returned to
the United Arab Emirates. As Many
As 27 Million Worldwide Forced into Slavery A Britain-based nongovernmental
organization, Anti-Slavery International, released a report Monday showing
that the number of people forced into slavery has risen to an estimated 27
million. In addition, the report showed the
trafficking of boys between to the United
Arab Emirates and other Gulf States, continued slavery in Brazil, and
inaction to free slaves in Mauritania. Police officer
arrested in connection with human trafficking Officers continue to question
women who fell victim to these two procurers. The number of Amalia
Mnatsakanyan's victims keeps growing. But the trafficking in women for the
United Arab Emirates continues. Anti-Slavery
International claims UAE still uses child slaves as camel jockeys In 2004, Anti-Slavery
International sent a photographer to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to
photograph children racing and training in the Gulf state. The photographs
prove that, despite the Government's repeated statements that this practice
has stopped, it is still a problem. Two years ago, the Government announced
that using children under 15 and lighter than 45 kilograms to race camels
would be banned from 1 September 2002 and offenders punished. Two
Cases of Trafficking to the Emirates “My friend Armenuhi deceived me”
says Narine. “She promised me a well-paid job in the United Arab Emirates. So
I went. Once I got there she took my passport and forced me into prostitution
to make money for her.” Armenuhi's brother drove Narine to
the airport, and Armenhui met Narine when she landed in the Emirates. she
immediately took her passport. Then her attitude changed dramatically. “She
told me that I had to work as a prostitute or else I could stay there and
rot,” says Narine. “She said I had to give her $10,000 to get my passport
back. Saudi Arabia/GCC
States: Ratify Migrant Rights Treaty! Saudi Arabia and the other GCC
states have a special responsibility to participate in all international
efforts to guarantee rights and justice for this vulnerable population.
Becoming parties to the migrant rights convention will signal the GCC’s
willingness to help address a serious worldwide problem. Dubai: Migrant
Workers at Risk Nearly ten million foreigners,
most of them unskilled or semi-skilled migrants, work in Gulf states.
Migrants comprise some 90 percent of the 1.7 million workers in the United
Arab Emirates, where the World Bank will hold its meetings. Despite their value to both their
home countries and the societies in which they work, many migrant workers
suffer from discrimination, exploitation and abuse. Migrants, including large
numbers of women employed as domestic servants, face intimidation and
violence, including sexual assault, at the hands of employers, supervisors,
sponsors and police and security forces. Children are especially vulnerable
to labor and sexual exploitation and denial of basic rights. "Thousands of children are
trafficked to the United Arab Emirates for use as beggars and camel
jockeys," Mungoven said. "The World Bank can't claim to fight child
labor in poor countries and then turn a blind eye when it crosses
borders." Sponsors and employers often
confiscate migrants' documents, including passports and residence permits,
restricting their freedom of movement and ability to report mistreatment.
Migrants in the Gulf states typically can't obtain an exit visa without the
approval of their sponsor or employer, sometimes placing them in situations
that amount to forced labor. Sexual
Exploitation of Children on the Rise Boys, sometimes as young as 5, are
sent each year from Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan to Dubai and the United
Arab Emirates to serve as jockeys in camel races. Miller
Addresses Modern Day Slavery According to Miller, the publication
of a report ranking nations based on violations of human rights spurred
progress in the battle against modern day slavery. The Office to Monitor and
Combat Trafficking in Persons reports that the United Arab Emirates, ranked
as having one of the worst records of human rights violations, instituted
border controls, prosecutions and heightened protections for victims as a
result of the report. Business
Is Booming for Slave Trade When Ibrahim Mohammad, now around
6 years old, fell off a camel in Dubai and fractured his shoulder last year,
he says he broke into a sobbing fit and pleaded with his handlers not to
strap him onto the back of a camel ever again. But as he well knew, no amount of
sniveling, whining or weeping could save him from the camel-racing track.
There was a lot of money at stake, there were no adults who would intercede
for him, and the skinny little Bangladeshi boy was just pushing his luck. As a camel jockey in the United Arab
Emirates' glitzy port city, Ibrahim was just a tiny cog in a vast, popular
sports industry, and like the other 20-odd boys in his dormitory, he was a
child slave. Protests were treated with a sound whipping with the sticks used
for the camels, and then it was back to the races for the tiny lads. Migrant
Women in the United Arab Emirates - The case of female domestic workers [PDF] [page 18] 3.1. GENERAL CONDITIONS - Isolation is a dominant feature
of foreign female domestic worker work environment in the United Arab
Emirates. Foreign female domestic workers are isolated physically, psychologically, socially, culturally and in
all aspects of human existence. However, they differ in their level of
isolation. Some foreign female domestic workers live in an abusive
environment of isolation. Others are able to interact socially and break
through some of the physical and psychological barriers they face. Legally, once a foreign female
domestic worker enters her employer’s house, she is totally under his/her
control, since the employer is usually her visa sponsor. Even today, United
Arab Emirates labour laws do not recognize domestics as part of the labour force. The employer bears total responsibility for
his/her domestic workers and has total control over them. However, during the
first three months of the contract, both the employer and the employee have
the right to contact the recruiting agency in order to report problems or to
seek change in the status or employment of the foreign female domestic
worker. Most recruiting agencies, however, do not encourage this practice,
and often hide information from the foreign female domestic worker about
their rights. The immigration regulations governing the status of domestic
workers and the social practices towards foreign female domestic worker in
the United Arab Emirates enslave them to their employers until the duration
of their contract ends. Whether one is placed with a desirable or an
undesirable employer is a matter of luck. TRAFFICKING IN WOMEN - . Tatyana is 20 years old. She
is from a small town in Lugansk oblast in Eastern Ukraine. It is impossible
for her to get a job there, because most industrial facilities in town are
idle. A friend of her mother proposed her a housemaid job for a rich family
in the United Arab Emirates. She was promised a $4,000 monthly income there,
while at home she could not find a job that paid even a tiny fraction of that
amount. However, when she arrived in the UAE, she was stripped of her
passport, sold to a brothel and forced to receive clients in order to repay
the fees she supposedly owed to the owner, who bought her for $7,000. Her
nightmare did not end even after she managed to escape: she was sentenced to
three years' imprisonment for working in an underground brothel after she
turned to the police for help. Now Tatyana is eleven months into her
sentence. Her mother, who calls an IOM-sponsored telephone hotline periodically,
is crying for help. All material used herein
reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial,
nonprofit, and educational use |
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Human Trafficking in [United Arab Emirates Street Children in [United Arab Emirates] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [United Arab Emirates] [other countries]