- The United Arab Emirates (UAE) ratified the Protocol of 2014 to the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (P29) on 15 January 2026. The UAE had already ratified the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) in 1982 and the Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105) in 1997.
- The UAE is part of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, alongside Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. It is the second GCC country, after Saudi Arabia, to ratify the Protocol.
Implications of ratifying the 2014 Protocol
Ratification legally commits the UAE to the following actions under international law:
- Adopt and implement a national policy and plan of action to suppress forced labour, developed in consultation with employers’ and workers’ organisations.
- Take specific measures to prevent forced labour, including:
- awareness-raising for workers in vulnerable situations and for employers;
- ensuring labour laws covering forced labour apply to all workers and all sectors; and
- strengthening labour inspection and enforcement services.
- Take action against abusive and fraudulent recruitment, including measures to protect migrant workers during recruitment and placement processes.
- Support due diligence by public authorities and private businesses to identify, prevent and address forced labour risks.
- Identify, release, and protect victims of forced labour, and provide access to recovery, rehabilitation and other assistance.
- Ensure access to remedies for all victims, including compensation, regardless of immigration or legal status.
- Ensure victims are not penalised or prosecuted for unlawful acts they were forced to commit because they were in forced labour.
- Cooperate with other states to prevent and eliminate forced labour and trafficking for forced labour purposes.
Risk analysis
- The UAE is not covered in the List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor nor in the Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor. However, forced labour is included as a risk in other sectors in US DOS reports (see below).
- The U.S. Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report 2025 identifies the following forced labour indicators in the UAE:
- Retention of identity documents
- Withholding of wages
- Excessive overtime
- Restriction of movement
- Deception
- Debt bondage
- Abusive working and living conditions
- Risks are predominantly found in domestic work, hospitality, online scam operations, sex trafficking and the service sector.
- Foreign nationals comprise nearly 90% of the UAE’s population, and lower-wage labour, including most manual labour and a significant share of the service sector, is performed almost entirely by migrant workers, who are typically at heightened risk of forced labour. The UAE functions as a trafficking hub, where recruiters sell migrants who are subsequently illegally transported to other Gulf countries.