cluding Oman's Musandam Peninsula and Al Madhah
enclaves, but contents of the agreement and detailed maps showing
the alignment have not been published; Iran and UAE dispute Tunb
Islands and Abu Musa Island, which Iran occupies

Trafficking in persons:
current situation: the United Arab Emirates is a destination
country for men, women, and children trafficked from South and East
Asia, Eastern Europe, Africa, and the Middle East for involuntary
servitude and for sexual exploitation; an estimated 10,000 women
from sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Europe, South and East Asia, Iraq,
Iran, and Morocco may be victims of sex trafficking in the UAE;
women also migrate from Africa, and South and Southeast Asia to work
as domestic servants, but may have their passports confiscated, be
denied permission to leave the place of employment in the home, or
face sexual or physical abuse by their employers; men from South
Asia come to the UAE to work in the construction industry, but may
be subjected to conditions of involuntary servitude as they are
coerced to pay off recruitment and travel costs, sometimes having
their wages denied for months at a time; victims of child camel
jockey trafficking may still remain in the UAE, despite a July 2005
law banning the practice; while all identified victims were
repatriated at the government's expense to their home countries,
questions persist as to the effectiveness of the ban and the true
number of victims
tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - UAE is placed on the Tier 2 Watch
List for its failure to show increased efforts to combat trafficking
in 2005, particularly in its efforts to address the large-scale
trafficking of foreign girls and women for commercial sexual
exploitation

Illicit drugs:
the UAE is a drug transshipment point for traffickers given its
proximity to Southwest Asian drug producing countries; the UAE's
position as a major financial center makes it vulnerable to money
laundering; anti-money-laundering controls improving, but informal
banking remains unregulated

This page was last updated on 8 February, 2007

======================================================================

@United Kingdom

Introduction United Kingdom

Background:
As the dominant industrial and maritime power of the 19th century,
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland played a leading
role in developing pa