UAE PASSES ANTI-TIP LEGISLATION

UNCLAS ABU DHABI 004286

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

STATE FOR G/TIP, DRL, NEA/RA AND NEA/ARPI

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PHUM KCRM AE
SUBJECT: UAE PASSES ANTI-TIP LEGISLATION

REF: STATE 87336


1. (U) On November 10, UAE President Khalifa bin Zayed
Al-Nahyan issued a federal law to combat human trafficking in
the UAE. The law defines trafficking in generally the same
manner as the U.N. Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish
Trafficking in Persons, upon which the UAE legislation is
reportedly based. The law will take effect one-month after
its publication in the Official Gazette(usually published the
last week of each month).

Definitions (unofficial translation)
--------------

2. (U) The new law defines human trafficking as "recruiting,
transporting, dispatching, or receiving persons through the
use or threatened use of force, or any other form of
coercion, kidnapping, deceit, manipulation, misuse of power,
exploitation of other's weaknesses, or giving or receiving
funds or advantages to win support of a person having
influence over another person with a view to exploiting
them." Exploitation is defined to include "all forms" of
exploitation for "sex, engaging others in prostitution,
servitude, forced labor, enslavement, quasi-slavery
practices, involuntary servitude, detachment of organs, or
subjugation."

Penalties
--------------

3. (U) The law establishes criminal penalties for trafficking
in persons, as well as for complicity or failure to report
known plans to traffic in persons, coercing someone to
provide false testimony in the investigation or prosecution
of trafficking, and covering up or tampering with evidence.
There are also financial penalties for corporate entities
whose owners, employees, or agents are involved in any of the
above.


4. (U) Under the new law, anyone directly involved in the
trafficking of persons is punishable by a mandatory term of
no less than five years in prison. The mandatory sentence is
increased to life imprisonment if the victim was a female
under the age of 18 or handicapped, or if the perpetrator
meets any of the following conditions:
-- the perpetrator committed the crime as part of an
organized criminal gang,
-- the crime was committed through deceit, and involved the
use of force or threat of murder or bodily harm, or involved
physical or psychological torture,
-- the perpetrator is the husband, ancestor, descendent, or
guardian of the victim,
-- the perpetrator is a public servant, or commissioned with
a public task.


5. (U) Any individual complicit in the trafficking of a
person, but is not directly involved, or was aware of a plan
to commit the crime and failed to report it to authorities,
may be sentenced to a prison sentence of one to five years,
or a fine ranging from AED 5,000 to 10,000 ($1,365 to
$2,730),or any combination of the two. Furthermore, any
person who uses either his/her position of authority, or the
threat of violence, to coerce another to provide false
testimony in either the investigation or prosecution of a
trafficking crime shall also be subject to a prison term of
no less than five years. Corporate entities whose owners,
employees, or agents are involved in the trafficking of
persons are subject to fines ranging from AED 100,000 to 1
million ($27,300 to $273,000) in addition to the criminal
penalties previously described for individual perpetrators.


6. (SBU) Comment: This law significantly clarifies the UAE's
criminalization of human trafficking. At first blush, it
appears to address all forms of human trafficking, with
emphasis on sex and labor trafficking, and generally reflects
the definitions established in the U.N. Protocol to Prevent,
Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons. Although the law
does not specifically refer to "debt bondage" (reftel),the
(unofficial translation) definitions appear to be
significantly broad enough to include this form of labor
trafficking. Post will report septel on the implementation
of this law. End comment.
SISON