David Cameron to start teaching post in the UAE

UK former prime minister David Cameron will start teaching politics at a university in Abu Dhabi starting in January amid rights concerns.

Cameron will take a post at New York University Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and will lecture students on "practising politics and government in the age of disruption" in a three-week course that is also expected to touch on the war in Ukraine and migration in Europe.

It is unclear how much Cameron is expected to make from this current teaching post.

However, rights voices expressed concern over the news as the UAE is an authoritarian state, and academic freedom is strongly suppressed.

In 2018, Emirati authorities arrested the British academic Matthew Hedges and held him in prison for six months. Hedges was jailed for life on spying charges and subsequently pardoned after pressure from the British government.

The British academic, following his release, claimed that the UAE tortured him, and he later started civil proceedings in the High Court in London against four of the senior officials who he says were involved.

The university campus that Cameron will be teaching in was built with abused and captive labour.

In 2015, Andrew Ross, a professor at New York University who specialised in labour rights, was banned from flying to the UAE without any reason being offered.