Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2016, published 106th ILC session (2017)

Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182) - United Arab Emirates (Ratification: 2001)

Articles 3 and 7(1) of the Convention. Worst forms of child labour and penalties. Clause (a). Slavery and practices similar to slavery. Sale and trafficking of children. Following its previous comments, the Committee notes the Government’s information in its report that from 2013 to the second quarter of 2016, four judgments were handed down against six perpetrators and three other persons for the offences related to the trafficking of five girls under the age of 18 years. The penalties included imprisonment for a period ranging from one to ten years, confiscation of money and objects, and deportation. The Committee also notes the Government’s indication that Federal Law No. 51 of 2006 on Combating Human Trafficking has been amended in 2015 with the effect of establishing harsher penalties for the crime of trafficking in persons and stricter penalties depending upon the age of the victim, such as life imprisonment if the victim is a child. Moreover, according to this amendment, trafficking of children includes recruiting, transferring, deporting, sheltering, selling, offering or receiving a child for the purpose of exploitation in prostitution, slavery and serfdom, forced labour, enslavement and begging. The Committee encourages the Government to pursue its efforts to ensure that persons who traffic in children are, in practice, prosecuted, and that sufficiently effective and dissuasive penalties are imposed pursuant to the 2015 amendments to the Law on Combating Human Trafficking. It requests the Government to continue to provide information on the number of infringements reported, investigations, prosecutions, convictions and penal sanctions applied for violations of the legal prohibition on the sale and trafficking of children.

Article 5. Monitoring mechanisms. Trafficking. The Committee notes the detailed information provided by the Government on the measures taken towards monitoring and combating trafficking of persons. According to this information:

• -A media campaign, in English and Arabic, and targeting all foreign communities, potential and affected victims, on the definition of human trafficking and its various forms, was launched from December 2015 to January 2016.
• -A Symposium on Harmony and Integration System for Combating Trafficking in Persons was conducted by the Dubai Foundation for Women and Children and the United Nations Centre for Human Rights Training and Documentation in February 2015.
• -A workshop on Human Trafficking and Communication Mechanisms was organized by the Dubai Police in 2015.
• -Awareness-raising programmes and training courses and lectures (4,490) targeting students, government officials and workers, was organized by the Human Trafficking Crimes Control Centre attached to the Dubai Police in 2015.
• -Training on laws related to human trafficking and crime detection was provided to 30 labour inspectors in 2015; 20 labour inspectors obtained a diploma from Sharjah University after having received training on the monitoring of indicators respecting human trafficking and their application.
• -7,831 visits were organized by the labour inspectors in 2015 to raise workers’ awareness of the Human Trafficking Law and Labour Code which benefited 203,584 workers.
• -12 workshops and 597 lectures on combating human trafficking was organized by the Ministry of Human Resources in 2015, which benefited 399 employers.

Article 7(2). Effective and time-bound measures. Clause (b). Direct assistance for the removal of children from the worst forms of child labour, and for their rehabilitation and social integration. Child victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation. Following its previous comments, the Committee notes the Government’s information that the Child Protection Act No. 3 of 2016, which provides for care and assistance to child victims of trafficking, has been adopted. It also notes from the Government’s report that the Dubai Foundation for Women and Children (DFWAC) and the Ewa’a Shelter Centre provide rehabilitation programmes, including safe shelters, medical, psychological, social, legal, material and financial support services to child victims of trafficking. Special procedures that suit the age of the victims are also developed, such as educational, recreational, professional and empowerment and training programmes. The DFWAC adopted proactive measures for the safe return of the victims and provided adequate services to prevent them falling victim to human trafficking once again. Moreover, the DFWAC monitors all persons who have returned to their home countries on a periodic basis to verify their safety and their non-exposure to any form of abuse. The Committee also notes the Government’s information that in 2015, the DFWAC identified 18 victims of trafficking, including five children (all girls) under the age of 18 years, and the Ewa’a Centre identified 13 victims of trafficking, including four children. In the first quarter of 2016, a total of seven victims of trafficking were identified, of which five were children under the age of 18 years. The Government also indicates that in 2015, the DFWAC provided financial and material assistance to child and adult victims of trafficking, which amounted to 38,500 Emirati dirhams (AED) while the amount funded by the Ewa’a Centre was AED162,391. The Committee requests the Government to continue to provide information on the measures taken to provide assistance to child victims of trafficking as well as information on the number of victims receiving such assistance.