This nancial pressure pushes labourers into other ways of quickly making money, often through the illegal trade of alcohol or drugs. Legally purchasing and drinking alcohol in the UAE is dif cult and expensive, requiring a permit (which must itself be periodically renewed for a fee), a licensed shop, and prohibiting purchase beyond a xed quota. This fuels an underground alcohol market, predominantly controlled by Iranians, with Indians and Pakistanis doing most of the work ‘on the ground’, thus being the ones caught up in the criminal justice system, sometimes ending up convicted and handed death sentences. Many foreign nationals in the UAE are involved in construction projects, often fraught with safety and human rights concerns. Acknowledgements With special thanks to the following organisations and individuals who lent their considerable assistance and expertise towards this research in the UAE: Harm Reduction International, Reprieve, Eleos Justice, Pramod Acharya, Francesca Rigg, among others. Death Penalty Research Unit, University of Oxford For more research see: fi fi fi foreign-nationals.uwazi.io or tinyurl.com/mappingdeathrow