'They have to be punished': the mothers trapped in the UAE by 'love crimes'

Single migrant women left destitute by Covid can't leave until they have served sentences for sex outside marriage - but virus restrictions mean prisons won't accept them

When Reyna* took a taxi to Al-Awir prison in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, she was hoping to turn herself in and be admitted as an inmate. The former domestic worker from the Philippines had brought her three-month-old son along with her.

Reyna lost her job during the pandemic; she can no longer pay for their rent or food and wants to return to her homeland. But in order to be permitted to leave the UAE she must first serve a jail sentence for having sex outside marriage, which is illegal under the country's Islamic laws.