Combating the trafficking of women in the United Arab Emirates: a critical analysis of the United Arab Emirates legal response in the context of international law

Abstract

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a key destination and transit country for human trafficking. Human trafficking is a complex international criminal enterprise that supplies humans for many different forms of forced labour and commercial sexual exploitation. It has devastating effects on its victims. Theories suggest that human trafficking is strongly linked to migration, which would explain why it has become an urgent issue for the UAE, since its massive influx of migrants seeking a better life and economic circumstances, are habitually lured to the UAE and subjected to exploitation by traffickers. It is a situation that in recent years has tarnished the UAE’s reputation to the international community and its wealthy investors. It is for all of these reasons that this thesis is concerned with human trafficking in the UAE, with a special focus on the trafficking of women, as well as the legal mechanisms and initiatives created to combat this scourge. At the heart of this investigation is Federal Law No. 51 which marked a pivotal moment for the UAE, as it was a law specifically designed to address trafficking on its territory. However, as with laws drafted by the international community, there exist difficulties with how trafficking should be construed, and with how traffickers and trafficked victims should be treated in order to effectively eliminate this crime. Ultimately, the research highlights the importance and benefits of a victim-centred human rights based approach, as opposed to the pervasive crime control one, which includes ensuring that victims are genuinely protected and fully rehabilitated to re-enter society. In addition, the research provides crucial insights from Islamic law and principles that raise significant implications for understanding how the trafficking in women should be conceptualised and dealt with in modern-day Muslim societies such as the UAE.