Detained, tortured and deported: Pakistani migrants recount UAE’s anti-Shia crackdown amid Iran war

23 min read

It was nearly four years ago that Ali abandoned his plan to migrate to Europe, instead choosing the UAE as a destination for a foreign job. The bustling Emirati city of Dubai attracted him with its reputation for safety, economic opportunity and, especially, its proximity to his home in Punjab, Pakistan. At 19 years old, having just completed pre-college education, he travelled to the Emirates where he sold and repaired computer parts in a store in Dubai.

Until the start of the US-Israel war on Iran, his life was going well. He earned AED 5,000 (USD 1360) a month and supported four family members back home. But when the conflict escalated and Iran began launching attacks on GCC states, the bulk of them targeting the UAE, his life was suddenly upended. In the first month of war, he spent days and nights watching drones and missiles in the Emirati sky.

In the afternoon of 8 April, a day after the conditional ceasefire announced by the US and Iran, he received a call on his mobile phone from caller ID ‘Dubai Police’. Ali was instructed to present himself at Al Lahbab Police Station in Sharjah within an hour, but given no explanation why. “I had no idea why they called me, I didn’t know what was going on,” he said.

Ali rushed to the police station. When he arrived, officers from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) confiscated his phone and ID card. The police then detained him and, nearly a week later, deported him to Pakistan. “I never committed any illegal activity or crime. I never gave my opinion to anyone about the Iran war. I never criticised the UAE,” he said from his home in Punjab. “There was no reason for sending me home. But I think they targeted me because I’m a Shia [Muslim].”

Imam Bargah or Imambara are congregation halls used by Shia Muslims for religious ceremonies and commemoration. Some also act as community centres. There are a few in the UAE, primarily in Dubai and Sharjah.

Ali is not the only one to be forcibly expelled from the UAE amid the ongoing war. In April and May, MRRORS spoke to seven deported Pakistanis who identified themselves as Shia. All said that they were targeted because of their religious background and on suspicion of supporting Iran. They claimed they had committed no unlawful acts in the country, yet were arbitrarily detained, harshly treated, and forcibly deported by UAE authorities without due process or opportunities to challenge the deportation orders.

Deported Pakistani migrants accused UAE authorities of tracking Pakistani Shia Muslims who attended religious gatherings in the UAE and later using that information to deport them. Hassan, a 27-year-old deportee, said he attended gatherings every year at the Imam Bargah* in Al Fahidi neighbourhood in Bur Dubai to pay respects to Imam Hussain, a revered religious leader of Shiites. Each time he attended, he said, UAE authorities checked his Emirates ID before allowing him entry. He now suspects that they later used those records to identify and deport Shia migrants.

Ali also believes that the explicit mention of ‘Shia’ on migrants’ visa-related documents increased their risk of being targeted and arrested [...] some Sunni Muslims were deported because they had attended gatherings at Imam Bargah in Dubai. “Because they had visited the Imam Bargah, they were deported,” he said. “The same thing happened to everyone.”

Ali, similarly, said he went to Bur Dubai to attend the Muharram Majlish, a religious congregation held during the first ten days of the Islamic month of Muharram. “There, the police checked my ID for safety reasons,” he said. “But now they used that data to locate and arrest people like me.”

Ali also believes that the explicit mention of ‘Shia’ on migrants’ visa-related documents increased their risk of being targeted and arrested. However, he said even some Sunni Muslims were deported because they had attended gatherings at Imam Bargah in Dubai. According to him, eight of his Shia friends and four Sunni friends had already been deported. “Because they had visited the Imam Bargah, they were deported,” he said. “The same thing happened to everyone.”

These deportees told MRRORS that they saw hundreds of other Pakistani Shiites inside detention facilities, jails, airports, and deportation flights. New Lines magazine recently reported that 15,000 Shia Muslims had already been deported from UAE - Opens in new tab, citing clerics in Pakistan as sources. In recent weeks, MRRORS also reviewed hundreds of TikTok videos posted by Pakistani deportees returning home from the UAE in large groups. In those social media posts, many stated that they had been deported because their names matched those commonly associated with Shiites in Pakistan. Testimonies and social media reviews suggest that Shiites with last names such as Ali, Abbas, Hassan, Hussain, Hyder, Naqvi and Syed were among those targeted.

Muzawar Abbas, from the city of Karachi in Pakistan, said he was one of the migrants targeted not because of any wrongdoing, but because of his religious identity. He had worked in the UAE for 13 years as a driver for a household. During that time, he said, he never committed any crime, never posted anything on social media that violated UAE laws, and never leaked sensitive information to the media. He knew the UAE enforces strict laws, with severe punishments for violating them. Others interviewed also expressed that they had exercised caution in terms of local laws.

Despite carefully avoiding any violation of UAE rules, Abbas still could not prevent his deportation. “What could I do when they [police] said, ‘Your time is over. Go back to Pakistan because you’re Shia,’” he said.

Hassan had worked as a delivery rider in Dubai for the past four years. But during what he described as the UAE authorities’ mass deportation campaign, he and twelve friends from the same village were deported to Pakistan. Hassan said he still cannot fully comprehend why he and his friends were expelled, but believes the UAE government targeted them without proof of wrongdoing.

Picked up by CID

Accounts from deported Pakistanis reveal that they were intercepted in public places in sudden and forceful ways, often without justification and without due process.

On the night of 25 April, Abbas was detained by CID officers at the Mall of the Emirates. He had just arrived to buy a mobile phone as a gift for his wife in Pakistan. Walking towards the mobile store, he was speaking with her on the phone to get her final decision on which model she wanted.

Behind him were two young Emiratis dressed in plain black clothes. While he was on the call, the men approached him, snatched his phone, and asked to see his Emirates ID. “They didn’t explain anything. They just told me ‘Come with me,’” Abbas said. “But I had already realised they were CIDs.”

In the UAE, CID officers are highly active throughout the country, patrolling both public and commercial spaces, including malls and airports. Some large commercial properties have dedicated CID offices on site, where officers carry out arrests and other operations. In the city of Dubai – which, according to NeoMam Studios - Opens in new tab, has the highest density of government-accessible CCTV cameras in the world – AI-powered surveillance cameras are extensively installed, allegedly used for facial recognition of the people CID officers intend to detain. The Mall of the Emirates is also highly surveilled. “They must have found me [by] looking into AI cameras,” Abbas said. “Otherwise how could they identify me?”

Having lived in the UAE for more than a decade, Abbas was familiar with how CID officers conduct arrests – often without explanation or warrants and while dressed in civilian clothes. Plus, in recent weeks, three of his cousins had already been arrested and deported under similar circumstances, so he believed it was only a matter of time before he too was detained.

Inside the mall, the CID officers handcuffed him and placed him in a van driven by a woman. “They didn’t allow me to speak. They didn’t even let me ask why I was arrested. They only asked, ‘Are you Pakistani? Are you Shia?’ I said ‘yes,’ then they said, ‘Let’s go,’” he told MRRORS. Throughout the night, the van travelled through the streets of Dubai picking up more detainees, while Abbas sat inside feeling like a ‘criminal’. The CID officers eventually filled the van with 13 additional arrestees before arriving at Al Warsan Immigration Centre in the morning – a journey that took six hours, despite the centre being only about a 30-minute drive from the Mall of the Emirates.

Hassan also said that CID officers might have identified him using the AI cameras and located him through his phone’s location. He was detained when he was at the Ibn Battuta Mall to pick up food for delivery. The CID officers handcuffed him with plastic zip ties and took him to multiple CID offices. He was transferred between different police stations before eventually being issued a deportation order.

Other Pakistani Shias said they were detained after being summoned to police stations without any explanation.

When Ali arrived at Al Lahbab Police Station and spoke with CID officers, they told him that his employer had cancelled his visa. Ali said, “I told them I had no issue with the company. I had just renewed my visa for two years in February. What they said was not true.”

Later, Ali received a letter which gave the cause of his deportation as ‘absconding/jailed’.

Syed, another Pakistani migrant, was detained on the evening of 8 April after arriving at the same police station following a call from CID. Until he reached the station, he said, he had no idea why he had been summoned or that he was going to be detained. Over the phone, officers never disclosed the reason for calling him in.

As the owner of a vehicle rental company in Dubai, Syed initially thought that one of his drivers might have been involved in an accident. Concerned, he rushed to the police station and asked why he had been called. Police directed him to speak with nearby CID officers. The CID officers then asked for his Emirates ID, checked it, and claimed his visa had already been cancelled by his employer.

“I told them that I have my own company, so no one can cancel my visa,” he said to MRRORS. “But they [the CID officers] said, ‘Just give me your stuff and mobile phone.’” Helpless, Syed handed over his phone, wallet, and other belongings from his pocket. CID officers searched through his phone, scrolled through his video gallery, and read private WhatsApp messages. “They didn’t find anything on my phone,” he said. “But they still put me behind bars.”

None of the migrants interviewed for this story said that they were given an opportunity to pursue legal channels to challenge their detention and deportation. Syed said detainees were subjected to such severe abuse and torture that they could not even request legal recourse. When he was held at the police station, Syed said he wanted to tell the officers that he should be allowed to go to court. But he did not dare make a request, fearing it would anger them, as detainees were already being beaten for minor issues. He also recalled seeing a businessman arrive at the station with a lawyer after being summoned. However, according to him, the police officers dismissed the lawyer, detained the businessman, and treated him like the others.

Although fear prevented Syed from seeking legal action before his deportation, he shared his reflections from Pakistan: “If I had done something wrong under UAE laws, they should prosecute me. They should bring me to court. They should give me the chance to prove whether I am guilty or innocent. Then if I was deported, it would be okay for me. People living there are there to earn, not to engage in politics. If any person has committed a crime, you can bring them before the courts and your justice system.”

Beatings, stripping, and electrocution

Inside the detention facilities, Pakistani migrants said their ordeal got worse. They described being physically and verbally abused, and treated as if they were hardened criminals.

At Al Lahbab Police Station, Syed was taken to a prison cell holding around 30 people, most of them Pakistanis, along with some Bangladeshis and Africans. As soon as he entered the cell, he said, police turned the air conditioning to an extremely low temperature and set the fans at full speed. “Then they removed our clothes completely, and poured water on our bodies so we would feel even colder,” he said. “It was like a chiller.”

Throughout the night of 8 April, he said, he was denied drinking water. When he asked for some, a policeman slapped him four or five times. He also had nowhere to sleep. The whole night, he either stood or sat crouched on his feet. He wanted to sit comfortably, but was afraid to ask because he saw other detainees being beaten for failing to maintain their position for long periods. “They [police] were beating everyone – anyone who asked for water, anyone who asked to relax. I was tired of standing. I wanted to tell them that I was tired and needed to sit, but they would beat us,” he said.

Throughout the night, Syed said, the policemen shouted at and beat detainees while mocking them for allegedly supporting Iran. “Ask Iran to help you. Ask your Imam Mahdi to help you … You’re living here but your hearts are with Iran,” Syed recalled officers shouting in Arabic and Urdu inside the prison cell, while detainees pleaded for mercy.

At the same police station, Ali said he was held for roughly six hours alongside six other Pakistani Shias. He said he was not physically tortured there, but officers repeatedly called him ‘himar’ – the Arabic word for ‘donkey’. Overnight, he was transferred to Al Warsan Immigration Centre in a police van with his hands cuffed behind his back.

At Al Warsan Immigration Centre, Ali said he was stripped naked in front of other detainees and forced to perform sit-stand punishments around twenty times.

For Abbas, the treatment was even more brutal. As soon as he arrived at the Al Warsan facility, the police registered his name and took him inside. He was immediately forced to perform sit-stand punishments and to walk on his knees across a ladder. Later, officers removed all his clothes in front of eight other detainees and recorded a video of him. Abbas said security personnel hurled extremely abusive language towards him involving his mother, and he was electrocuted with a stun gun when he retaliated.

During his three days inside the Al Warsan facility, Abbas said he was given foul-smelling khubus bread to eat and salty sea water to drink. “It was very bad, you cannot eat and drink that,” he said. Detainees, he said, were crowded into small rooms, and forced to sleep on double-decker beds without pillows.

For the deportation process, all Pakistani detainees who spoke to MRRORS were transferred to Al Awir Detention Centre, also known as Al Awir Central Jail. Although deportees said conditions there were less severe than in previous detention sites, they still described being treated like ‘criminals’. They said they were made to wear prison uniforms, served ‘uneatable’ food, and forced to sleep in cramped and unsanitary conditions.

Syed was transferred to Al Awir Central Jail after spending the entire night inside Al Lahbab Police Station. At Al Awir, he said he was not physically tortured, but was provided low-quality food that was nearly impossible to eat. On the fifth day of his detention, authorities processed his outpass documents and transported him to Dubai International Airport.

Abbas was moved to Al Awir Central Jail after spending three days at Al Warsan Immigration Centre. At Al Awir, he said, he was placed in a hall where 108 people slept together. He said he spent most of the next five days sleeping because he would feel extremely drowsy within minutes of eating the food. “I think they mixed sleeping tablets into the food,” he said. “Otherwise, why would everybody feel sleepy immediately after eating?” He suspected authorities added sedatives to the meals to keep detainees subdued and prevent unrest among the large crowd.

Only one of the deportees who spoke to MRRORS was given his passport before leaving the country. The others said that the immigration authorities at Al Awir Detention Centre photographed them and gave them emergency travel documents, including outpasses issued by the Pakistan embassy. The embassy itself was not in touch with the workers. Documents MRRORS reviewed show the reasons for deportation as ‘Jailed/Absconding’.

Two document pages with personal details covered by black redactions.

The deportation day

On the day of deportation, Pakistani migrants were escorted to Dubai International Airport by police. But deportees said that they were treated inhumanely even on the way to the airport from the Al Awir Central Jail.

While in the prisoner transport van, they could not see what was outside. Their clothes, shoes, and slippers were returned to them, but were not in the same condition as before.

Ali and Syed said that the belts of their shalwars [trousers] were removed. “I held my trousers with my hands at the airport, then bought a charging cable there, and used that to secure my clothes,” said Syed. Some were wearing shoes without laces, as they had been cut by the authorities during detention.

Deportees also said they were not given any opportunity to settle their affairs in the UAE. As a result, they lost track of important personal belongings without any explanation of what would happen to them. Neither were they given any of their due wages and entitlements.

Abbas said that when he was detained, police confiscated USD 800, two gold chains, and a bracelet. These were never returned. When he arrived at the airport from Al Awir, some of his belongings had already been brought there, but many others were missing. “I asked where the rest were, but they said, ‘That’s all,’” he said.

Absconding
The single most powerful tool in the hands of sponsors is the ability to slap an absconding charge on migrant workers. This exposes them to multiple vulnerabilities: being forced to work in abusive conditions, becoming irregular, hefty fines, detention, deportation if they manage to pay the fines, loss of income, ban on re-entry, and often a heavy toll on their mental and physical health.
In the case of the Pakistani deportees, the law is being weaponised by the state.

Luckily, as he had already seen three of his relatives being deported, he had prepared himself and withdrawn his savings from the bank. “I had already sent my money to Pakistan. Otherwise, I would have lost [it],” he said. But he was unable to settle matters related to his car. When he was arrested at the Mall of the Emirates, his vehicle remained parked there. Authorities never informed him what would happen to it.

Syed said he is still owed around AED 200,000 (around USD 54,500) by various people, but now fears he may never recover the money. His company’s assets, such as cranes and machinery, are in Dubai, and he had asked his friends to sell them at low prices. From Pakistan, he expressed frustration that UAE authorities did not give him time to settle his business affairs. “If you want to deport someone, give him time so he can organise his belongings and sell his assets,” he said.

“All my dreams have been broken”

Since migrating to the UAE in 1996, Syed’s family and relatives had been running businesses in Dubai. In 2019, Syed himself moved to the UAE hoping to build an even more prosperous future.

Over the past seven years, he said, he expanded the family business and built his own financial success. He now owns two businesses in Dubai – a construction machinery rental company and an electronics shop selling mobile phones and laptops in downtown Dubai. “In the normal course of life, we were very relaxed there. We were earning well. We were living in a safe environment and everything was fine,” he said.

After years in Dubai, Syed said he had begun to see the city as a second home. He had brought his entire family to the UAE, where his children attended school. When Iran launched attacks against the UAE, he did not support Iran. Instead, he said, his own family was directly affected by the conflict. As tensions escalated, he sent his wife and children back to Pakistan out of concern for their safety in Dubai. His business also began to suffer.

Despite being Shia, he said he openly criticised Iran’s attacks because many migrants were losing jobs as a result of the instability. He added that he frequently posted messages on social media supporting the UAE and condemning the attacks by Iran. Yet, he said, he was still targeted. Following the escalation of the war, he said he was deported on the grounds of ‘absconding’,* which he says is a false accusation. By the end of April, he said, ten other members of his extended family had also been deported from the UAE to Pakistan.

Article 2(3) of the UAE Federal Decree-Law No. 38 of 2022 explicitly prohibits the infliction of physical or moral harm upon an accused person and forbids torture or degrading treatment under any circumstances.

Now back in Pakistan, Syed said he remains deeply disturbed by the feeling that he was punished despite having done nothing wrong. “If I had committed a wrong thing, if I had committed anything against the UAE laws, you can prosecute me,” he said. “Give me the right to defend myself.”

Abbas said he was angry at the UAE authorities because he believed he had been mistreated and unfairly expelled from the country. He said he no longer wished to return to the UAE because he felt he had been discriminated against solely because of his religious sect – an identity he said he was proud of. “People have different religions, don’t target their religion and deport them,” he said.

At the same time, Abbas said he remained grateful for the opportunities he had found in the UAE. Working as a driver for a member of one of the ruling families, he earned around AED 7,000 (USD 1900) a month and lived comfortably near Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, in downtown Dubai. He believed his future was secure, especially because the royal family appreciated his driving skills and had expressed interest in sponsoring another visa for him.

While living in Dubai, Abbas supported his entire family through his income. But after being deported, he said he fell into deep distress. He is especially worried about his five-year-old daughter, who had just started school. With his source of income gone, he said he has already begun searching for work opportunities in other countries. “I had nothing to do with the war, but they targeted me,” Abbas said. “When I didn’t do anything wrong, why are you punishing me?”

When Ali moved to Dubai four years earlier, he dreamed of saving enough money to eventually start his own business. “All my dreams have been broken now,” he said. “Now I don’t have a job or a business. I have no idea what to do next.”

The UAE is party to the Arab Charter on Human Rights (ACHR), and is in violation of several related commitments.

Article 3 states that all individuals subject to the state’s jurisdiction have “the right to enjoy the rights and freedoms set forth herein, without distinction on grounds of race, colour, sex, language, religious belief, opinion, thought, national or social origin, wealth, birth or physical or mental disability.”

In exceptional situations of threats to the nation, states can derogate from obligations, as long as it is not “solely on the grounds of race, colour, sex, language, religion or social origin.” (Article 4)

Even then, no derogation is permitted from several core articles, some of which are mentioned below, that the UAE has violated in this case of mass deportation.

Article 8

No one shall be subjected to physical or psychological torture or to cruel, degrading, humiliating or inhuman treatment.

Article 13

Everyone has the right to a fair trial that affords adequate guarantees before a competent, independent and impartial court that has been constituted by law to hear any criminal charge against him or to decide on his rights or his obligations. Each State party shall guarantee to those without the requisite financial resources legal aid to enable them to defend their rights.

Article 14

Everyone has the right to liberty and security of person. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, search or detention without a legal warrant.
Anyone who is arrested shall be informed, at the time of arrest, in a language that he understands, of the reasons for his arrest and shall be promptly informed of any charges against him. He shall be entitled to contact his family members.
Anyone arrested or detained on a criminal charge shall be brought promptly before a judge or other officer authorized by law to exercise judicial power and shall be entitled to trial within a reasonable time or to release. His release may be subject to guarantees to appear for trial. Pre-trial detention shall in no case be the general rule.
Anyone who is deprived of his liberty by arrest or detention shall be entitled to petition a competent court in order that it may decide without delay on the lawfulness of his arrest or detention and order his release if the arrest or detention is unlawful.

Furthermore, related to Article 13 of the ACHR, UAE has also violated its obligations as a party to the Convention Against Torture (CAT). Article 1 of CAT prohibits “any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity.”

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