To think that people who admire Dubai's low crime rate often miss the fact that it's partly due to nearly 90% of the population being temporary workers?

[Carla786]

Some people might remember a week or so ago on AIBU there was a thread about whether the OP should move to Dubai. Many posts praised the low crime rate & compared it favourably to UK.

I was critical of this for several reasons. Checking facts later, I realised that nearly 90% of Dubai residents are Expat workers or migrants who've held in a restrictive system (the kafala system has been strongly criticised for being essentially indentured servitude, and there have been reforms but it still seems concerning).

It's unsurprising crime, especially violent crime, would be low when most people are either temporary expats or people who've likewise been sourced specifically to come and work (and are held in a punitive system), and whose families often depend on the remittances they're sending back.

Obviously the harsh criminal code in Dubai (though there have again been some recent reforms) plays a role, but the population makeup alone makes comments on Dubai's superior morality/crime control etc very questionable.

I myself think policing and crime need serious reforms in the UK but people comparing it to Dubai favourably are comparing apples to authoritarian oranges.

@NamelessNancyour domestic help was there by choice and had a grown up son. She was happy as was earning more than a professional would in her own country. We treated her well and she was free to leave whenever she wanted. I think there are many parents working away from home in UK also? What do you say to them? Should their employer also feel
bad? If not, why not?

Oh now I’m confused, what will they be in touch with her for? Libel perhaps but you like Dubai so why would saying that harm your reputation?

I stand by everything that I said, I do not take it back and I do not apologize.

Like I said, you seem deeply confused and seriously under-informed.

https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/middle-east-and-north-africa/middle-east/united-arab-emirates/

https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2025/country-chapters/united-arab-emirates

https://internationallaw.blog/2024/12/09/the-uae-a-global-hub-rife-with-human-rights-abuses/

Sweetie, this isn’t the UAE. Freedom of speech is fine here. No one gets disappeared for saying Sheikh Mo is an utterly corrupt, power-crazed and dangerous individual. And let’s not get started on his terrible poetry…

I lived there too for four years and was close to a nervous breakdown when we finally left. My daughters had a great education when there, my husbands career was great and while I had a good job that I enjoyed I am so happy to be in the UK again.

Meant to say that browser 2025’s post is utterly spot on!

Do many UK parents leave their kids to go and provide domestic service in countries like Dubai to send money home to provide? If not, why not?

So that would only be videos of the capital itself which is super shiny, where your car must be silver or white and it's compulsory to wash it every time you enter the city and there is an endless supply of gold statues .... The absolute majority of rest of country is very poor, dessert like for a lot of it, camels roaming and a very basic standard of living. The control over citizens (and tourists) in capital is crazy ... We had secret police follow us all the time, hotel room bugged, phones taken off us at public market and our photos deleted. No locals would really speak to us at all in the capital because of the scrutiny they then face but it was easier to meet locals further out in rural areas - but TBF the country is very open that it is ran by a dictator and it's nearly impossible for a local to get a visa to leave.

No, I don't think so.

But I live in Ireland and a couple of my (part time) cleaning ladies have come from Eastern European countries. My current one has a married daughter and grandchildren back in her home country, and until about 3 years ago her teenage son was living with her daughter, until she was able to bring him to Ireland. (not sure how long she has lived in Ireland, she's been working for me for about 5 years).

A previous cleaner also had family back in her home country, she has since gone back home.

I think its quite common for people from Eastern Europe to come to Ireland (also UK - although maybe less so since Brexit - and probably other EU countries) work very hard for a few years, live very simply and go back home. My relative in the uk had a live in domestic worker for a few years who bought a farm with her earnings. (she left right after the Brexit vote)

The difference is I don't hold my cleaners passport, i have no power over her, the law will not protect me if I harm her, she is a free agent.

lol - that was quite alarming that poster saying ‘my legal team will be after you’ - does somewhat smack of the authorities

Sorry, I don’t want to pry but why exactly? There is nothing that the UK can offer better than Dubai or anywhere in the UAE. You will regret moving back to this backwater.

I honestly don’t understand what you’re getting out of trolling this thread. How are you benefiting from trying to stay visible in a discussion you clearly have no firsthand experience with?

I highly doubt you’ve ever lived in any of the seven emirates, yet you’re trying to claim the entire UAE has more to offer than the UK.

From your replies, it sounds like you live in the UK and you seem to hate it here, yet for some reason, you’re fixated on the UAE without actually knowing much about it.

So what’s the point of shutting down anyone who shares the reality of life in Dubai? Why bother?

It was this thread: maybe Sheikh Makhtoum employs bots 🤣

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5441577-husband-wants-to-move-to-dubai?page=1

I've heard they take the passports off the migrant (slave) workers too. It's outrageous. Wild horses wouldn't drag me to any of the countries in that part of the ME.

The migrant workers are often from India. I doubt many of them want to commit crime, even if they weren't locked in bondage. A lot of families often rely on remittances, as I said.

Many workers do say they were aware apparently of the harsh kamala system but still chose to go to have a chance to earn. This is NOT an excuse for them being treated that way, simply another reason why they're unlikely to wish to commit crime.

Tbf, they HAVE reformed the kafala system somewhat but the way migrants are treated is still inhumane.

The Expo 2020 workers were treated disgustingly. Al Jazeera is normally supportive of Muslim countries for obvious reasons but to their credit they called Dubai out.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2022/2/2/new-report-highlights-labour-rights-abuses-at-dubais-expo-2020

Exactly. I've read of Filipino housemaids and nannies being maltreated sometimes by employers (Ben Judah's book This Is London has a sad chapter on this), obviously this problem sadly exists everywhere. But we have no kafala system, thank goodness!

Sometimes I wonder if Sheikh Makhtoum thinks of himself as a Pharaoh...using the labour of people who are close to slaves (especially before the reforms) to build huge towers. Not that the towers of Dubai are on a par with the Pyramids of Giza!

Leo Hickman's 2006 book The Final Call is outdated now but gives a good overview of the problems tourism can cause. The chapter on Dubai (when the building frenzy then caused especially bad treatment of workers) is eye-opening. One of the critical Emiratis he interviewed was thrown in jail shortly after- hopefully he's been released by now...

Of course it was!

Defenders will say that the laws have since been softened (international outcry can sometimes have an effect) and he was only prosecuted due to being reported (unusual).

But that doesn't make the brutally disproportionate jailing of a teenager who committed no meaningful crime any better

He IS a dangerous man. Including to his own family. Two of Dubai's princesses have been treated appallingly, with the collusion at one point of Britain as we need their oil.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=www.newyorker.com/the-runaway-princesses&ved=2ahUKEwjKptr2ypCRAxWpVEEAHbFdBvwQFnoECCAQAQ&usg=AOvVaw2DRw5ySs6XVR1mSlQatUqd

So multiculturalism should include maltreated migrant workers? Fascinating.

My friend recently moved to Dubai and loves it. Tax free salary, amazing public services, everything feels safe and clean and luxurious. She said it is a very racist place though.

Perhaps also the facial recognition and social credit systems?

Most European countries have no death penalty and still have lower violent crime rates than we do, including spousal murder.

Do you think WE should reinstate the death penalty?

China actually tops the world list of countries that retain the death penalty for excuting the most people

https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/act50/6548/2023/en/

Where did you go in the US?

Obviously the US has many good characteristics. But surely you can't deny that there are serious issues there too?

Higher violent crime rate than here, school shootings which are practically zero here, huge political polarisation, abortion banned even in cases of rape in some states, child marriage also occurring in some states, abnormally lax homeschooling laws allowing cult-like groups like Quiverfull to isolate their children.

Exactly. The situation for democracy campaigners & for his daughters & ex wife is disgusting. Can't the Jordanian royals do anything? I suppose they're scared for various reasons..