Another Victory for the War on Trafficking

In its 2005 human trafficking report, the State Department deemed the United Arab Emirates a "tier 3" country. That designation carries with it the threat of sanctions. How did 2006 work out?

Police arrested and deported 4,300 prostitutes from the United Arab Emirates last year, a police colonel said in remarks published yesterday about a normally taboo subject in the region.

Mohammed Al-Mir, who heads Dubai police human rights department, gave the figure to a seminar on people trafficking, the newspaper 7 Days reported.

Regular raids were being carried out in places thought to be frequented by prostitutes, deported women were blacklisted to prevent their return, and tourist companies bringing women into the country were checked to make sure their clients were not prostitutes.

To recap: The head of Dubai's "police human rights department," speaking at a trafficking seminar, feels that it's a good time to brag about those 4,300 working immigrants he helped boot from the country.

Two years back, I suggested that the war on trafficking had morphed into a crackdown on human mobility. Tracy Quan, speaking with rather more authority, comes to a similar conclusion here.