Protecting the Rights of Trafficked Women: The Case of United Arab Emirates

Trafficking in persons (TIP) also known as “modern day slavery”, has over the past few decades become one of the fastest growing criminal activities. The state policies in many countries address trafficking as an issue of border control and global organized crime, but not as a human rights violation of the trafficked persons. TIP is not just a transnational organised crime, it is also a serious breach of human rights in particular of women and young girls who are trafficked into gender-specific situations of exploitation such as sex tourism, and forced labour in domestic and service industries. The majority of women and girls identified among victims continue to be trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Moreover, female victims are also trafficked in large numbers for forced labour, particularly for domestic work and for other types of exploitation, including forced marriages and forced criminality. After the Covid 19 pandemic there has been a sharp increase in the number of women and girl trafficking, rising by 25% compared to 2019. Migrant workers make up a significant share of the trafficked victims in most global regions. Sub-Saharan Africa, North America, and Eastern European countries saw significant increases in the detection of victims compared to while countries in South America, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, East Asia and the Pacific, North Africa and the Middle East recorded increasing detections as compared to 2020 but still fewer compared to the 2019 pre-pandemic period. The aim of this article is to examine the UAE’s Federal Law No.24 of 2023 as this law is specifically designed to address trafficking on its territory. The article addresses the gaps in the existing legislation and suggests law reform by taking a human rights-based approach for protecting the rights of victims of trafficking and not merely criminalizing the perpetrators of trafficking crime.