To think the British people who went out to Dubai to profit from slave labour by "influencing" (i.e. manipulating) made their beds and now should lie cosily in them

[Mightneedencouraged]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/01/uk-citizens-detained-uae-frustrated-government-intervention-iran-conflict

The brass neck of these family members complaining when the boot is finally on the other authoritarian foot

I think they have a cheek to enjoy Non Dom status , pay no tax to the UK , but expect the UK taxpayer-funded services to help them out.

I have sympathy for them getting stuck or falling foul of the hand that feeds them, but if you take yourself out of a system don’t expect that system to rescue you 🤷🏻‍♀️

Because they are being bombed? Anyway my family there (who are are Indian nationals) haven't fled. They are still living their lives as normally as they can and still having fun.

I'm glad you haven't been SAed. But many women in the UK have or have faced situations where they feared it. Haven't almost all UK women unfortunately been SHed at least once in life.

Even if the UAE under reports by 10-20x (conservative guess matching or exceeding UK levels), the actual incidence of random stranger attacks is still drastically lower.

Again vast majority of expats have had to pay for the repatriation flights.

Is everyone just ignoring this?

I never said they went by mistake. That’s not the same thing as purposely avoiding tax. Is it only Dubai you feel this way about or any country that people choose to emigrate to?

If you go to another country, you have to follow their rules, whether you agree with them or not. It’s as simple as that.

These people must have known that filming and broadcasting would have consequences. Or maybe they’re so blinded by their influencer status, that they forget they’re just normal people. They’re not immune to punishment if they break the rules.

I feel sorry for their relatives, but the people who’ve been detained really should have known better.

Non dom status isn't a thing. They aren't UK tax residents. They don't live here....

This I agree with wholeheartedly.

Seeing threads on here not long ago asking does the house keeper also nanny the kids or should we employ a separate person. And the replies being, you can get the house keeper to look after the children as well. They were definitely taking advantage of the cheap labour of poor women.

I don’t live in Dubai and I know about this rule for some time, how can these 35 people had no clue about it when they are in the country?

It’s pointless to debate about the objective behind the new law versus old. If you want to live there, accept it. If you don’t agree with it, go to another place.

Yep but people like peddling their own narratives that the flights were free.

Agreed, I didn’t really take any notice of these kind of influencers until all this and only recently learned that Dubai influencers have to get a permit to operate and follow a code of conduct for the content they post.

No wonder they’re all obsessed with how ‘safe’ it is, they’re following government briefing lines.

There was an episode of ‘When it hits the fan’ about how many flooded their channels with the same government provided content after the first strikes, it’s worth a listen.

Excellent point. If you were assaulted in Dubai you wouldn’t be safe to report it.

Around 35% of working age adults in the UK pay no income tax. The majority of those are not in fact earning huge amounts of money, obviously.
What people on here are moaning about is British people expecting services they haven’t paid for. But there are plenty of people who still live here who expect just that. We do not have a “pay as you go” system in this country and that is what you are advocating for. If you want to do that, perhaps it would be best to look at how much tax they paid, before they left?

this, no problem with governments assisting in trying to repatriate citizens who have become stuck in a conflict zone, that's that they should do.

but if the OPs question is about people who moved to an authoritarian regime which is happy to abuse the rights of low income migrant workers and criminalise homosexuality because it financially suited them having no leg to stand on when the authoritarian regime punishes then for stepping out of line then I'd have to agree that I have fuck all sympathy for them while still condemning the regimes actions.

Why? They changed the criminalisation of sex outside of marriage years ago.

Well yes it is. Because that’s not how it works and everybody knows that. Look at the public funds spent on Shamima Begum and the likes! If you’re British, you’re entitled to help from the British government, it’s literally as simple as that. We don’t tell poor people they can’t access housing and health services because they don’t pay in.

Yes, OP is talking about one very specific group of residents in Dubai here. All very well talking about the consulate, but there may not be much they can actually do.

There is an awful lot of modern slavery in many sectors of the UK here as well. Unfortunately it’s everywhere.

The low income workers thing is an issue they are working to improve.

The homosexuality thing is because it's their religion. When you're a guest in someone's home you follow their rules.

Absolutely this

These children you despise will be the ones looking after you in old age and pay taxes to look after you. Their company pension contributions will pay for your pensions…

💯- government must sort out my problems when I’m in dire straights but no way am I helping out the government/collective by realising this costs money.

The reason we can afford this superior attitude in the UK, where we pay minimum wage and treat workers well, is because we import cheap goods from abroad. Most of our small manufactured goods and clothes and come from China and they have the second highest number of enslaved people in the world (after India). We go along with it because it suits us financially. Just like the people in Dubai.

I say let them rot unless they want to pay some of those taxes they skipped out on.