Human Trafficking in [United Arab Emirates] [other countries]
Street Children in [United Arab Emirates] [other countries]
Child Prostitution in [United Arab Emirates] [other countries]
 

Child Prostitution

The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children

United Arab Emirates (UAE) [ Country-by-Country Reports ]

The United Arab Emirates [map] is a federation of sheikhdoms located in SE Arabia, on the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. The federation consists of seven sheikhdoms: Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah, and Umm al-Qaiwain. The city of Abu Dhabi in Abu Dhabi is the capital. The UAE has an open economy with a high per capita income and a sizable annual trade surplus. Its wealth is based on oil and gas output (about 30% of GDP), and the fortunes of the economy fluctuate with the prices of those commodities. Since the discovery of oil in the UAE more than 30 years ago, the UAE has undergone a profound transformation from an impoverished region of small desert principalities to a modern state with a high standard of living.

CAUTION:  The following links and accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in the United Arab Emirates. Some of these links may lead to websites that present allegations that are unsubstantiated, misleading or even false. No attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content.

Bur of Democracy, Human Rights & Labor - Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005

TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS - During the year, there were a number of media reports of trafficking in women and girls into the country, especially to Dubai, for sexual exploitation. Observers believed that trafficking activity was conducted with the complicity of some of the women's citizen sponsors and by non-citizen traffickers.

ECPAT: Fifth Report on implementation of the Agenda for Action [DOC]

[B] COUNTRY UPDATES – UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – It seems that the major problem of concern in the United Arab Emirates is the one of human trafficking. There is no available data on child prostitution and child pornography; however some studies have been conducted on human trafficking.

U.A.E.: Muslim Federation Of States Is Hub of International Prostitution

The latest U.S. State Department report on human trafficking, released in June, sharply criticizes the U.A.E. government for failing to tackle the links between prostitution and illegal trafficking. The report says: "The United Arab Emirates is a destination country for men, women, and children trafficked primarily from South and East Asia and the former Soviet Union for the purposes of sexual and labor exploitation."

A woman, native of Turkmenistan, will soon be tried in a court in the [Tajik] capital for exploiting her adopted daughter as a prostitute

In February 2002, the accused adopted the underage girl, as it became known later, with a view to sexual exploitation. She took the 12-year-old girl to the UAE three months afterwards, where the girl (an ethnic Tatar) was for the first time forced into prostitution. The following year, they stayed in Dubai, where the girl was regularly forced into prostitution. She was repeatedly sexually abused.

In February 2003, they were deported from the UAE, but this did not stop the resourceful "mother", and the girl was taken to Turkey in December 2003. There, in Istanbul she was sexually exploited until March this year

Thai Families Partners In Child Sex Trade

With prices varying from $114 to $913—the latter figure equal to almost six years' wages for most families—parental bonds in impoverished households are easily broken. In fact, child prostitution is so established that many brothel agents live in the village, and are often friends or relatives of the family from whom they buy the children. The agents also approach the thousands of girls from Burma, Laos and southern provinces of China who cross the border annually. Many wind up working as prostitutes in Singapore, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates and Australia.

Slavery of Children and women in Persian gulf countries

Exact number of victims is impossible to obtain, but according to an official source in UAE, there has been increase in the number of teen-age girls in prostitution (forced to work from Iran and other countries). The magnitude of the statistic conveys how rapidly this form of abuse has grown. The popular destinations for victims of the sex slave trade are the Arab countries in the Persian Gulf (UAE, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar). Traffickers target girls between 13 and 17 to send to Arab countries. The number of Iranian women and girls who are deported from Persian Gulf countries indicates the Magnitude of the trade.

Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - Armenia 2002

[f] TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS - However, most parents and relatives were convinced that they were sending such children to work in the UAE or elsewhere as models, dancers, waitresses, or domestic servants. Traffickers themselves were often ex-prostitutes or pimps who have already established "good working contacts" in the country of destination. They were well organized, have connections with local authorities and were supported and protected by criminal gangs.

5.1 Middle East - State of CSEC/ Attitudes toward CSEC [PDF]

While Israel, Jordan and Lebanon indicate a tacit willingness to address the issue, the majority of the countries in the region have not conducted research and deny the possibility that children are being sexually exploited for commercial purposes. Open discussions of sex related issues are regarded as a social taboo thus further explaining the lack of research and acknowledgement of CSEC. While the extent of child prostitution in the Middle East region is unknown, anecdotal evidence indicates that there is a large problem in selected areas of the region.

Commercial sexual exploitation of children - Middle East/North Africa region

These countries also have in common, however, a number of constraints that have hindered preparation of national plans of action. In all the countries of the region, there is cultural resistance to addressing the problem because the subject is largely taboo. Often the issue is dealt with more generally under headings such as ‘violence’ and ‘trauma’. This means that there has been no regional consensus on defining CSEC in law; in some countries, for example, it is looked upon as an indecent act, in others as rape, although in all 20 countries there is some section of the penal code that can be invoked against sexual abuse and exploitation.

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Human Trafficking in [United Arab Emirates] [other countries]
Street Children in [United Arab Emirates] [other countries]
Child Prostitution in [United Arab Emirates] [other countries]