consGtuGng only 9% of the populaGon). Recent research by the Death Penalty Research Unit found that Pakistanis were disproporGonally affected by the death penalty in Saudi Arabia for drug trafficking offences and that many could be described as vicGms of human trafficking due to the exploitaGve pracGces prevalent under the kafala system – these findings may also be applicable to the UAE given similariGes in the migratory system (Hoyle, HuOon and Harry, 2023). Capital crimes linked to exploitative working and living conditions Our research shows that many of the capital crimes for which migrant workers are sentenced to death in the UAE – particularly violent cases that led to a conviction for homicide – are intimately related to their precarious economic and migratory conditions as well as the exploitative conditions of their employment and poor living conditions under the kafala system. A new DPRU article outlines this experience across the Gulf in greater detail (Harry, Hoyle and Hutton, forthcoming). Several of the cases involve crimes that were allegedly motivated by financial disputes; based on the facts of the cases we can see disputes arose related to migrant workers’ exploitative work conditions, low pay and migration-related debt. For example, two Bangladeshi men were sentenced to death in 2013 after beating to death another migrant worker from their labour camp who one of them owed Dh3,5002. In another case, an Egyptian man was sentenced to death in 2014 after killing a Palestinian man to whom he owed Dh250,0003. Likewise, two Indian men were sentenced to death in 2010 after murdering a man who was blackmailing them to avoid repaying him the money that they owed him4. Others committed crimes in order to send money home or to return home themselves: a Pakistani man was sentenced to death in 2009 after killing a Nepali security guard who was working at a showroom that the defendant robbed, allegedly to send money back to his family at home5. Furthermore, two Pakistani men were sentenced to death in absentia in 2014 after they killed their boss and used his bank card to withdraw Dh92,000 to buy airline tickets for them to travel back home to Pakistan6. Strikingly, in UAE there are many Indian men – at least 27 – on death row as a result of a violent crime relating to bootlegging activities, which are widely thought to be motivated by a need to supplement their low salaries. An Indian businessman, S.P. Singh Oberoi, started a charitable trust in 2010, after hearing about cases of Indian men from Punjab being sentenced to death in UAE, and has paid diyya (‘blood money’) to secure the release of at least 89 Indians on death row. As he explains: 2 The Na@onal News UAE, hEps://www.thena@onalnews.com/uae/courts/death-sentence-for-murderers-whokilled-colleague-over-debt-in-dubai-1.367075. 3 The Na@onal News UAE, hEps://www.thena@onal.ae/uae/man-sentenced-to-death-appears-in-court-overvisa-dispute-1.266184. 4 The Na@onal News UAE, hEps://www.thena@onal.ae/uae/courts/two-killers-sentenced-to-death-in-dubaicourt-1.556699. 5 Gulf News, hEps://gulfnews.com/uae/man-sentenced-to-death-for-killing-security-guard-1.473440. 6 The Na@onal News UAE, hEps://www.thena@onal.ae/uae/man-sentenced-to-death-for-sliSng-throat-of-hisboss-1.274526.