Gold smuggled from war zones entered the UAE despite new regulations, report says

CAIRO (AP) — The United Arab Emirates remains a key destination for gold smuggled from war zones despite new regulations on the trade imposed by the government after facing international pressure, a new report says.

Many gold refiners and traders in the UAE are not following the rules and enforcement is lax, according to the report by Swissaid, a Switzerland-based aid and development group. The report recommended that the UAE be added to an international watchlist for possible financial wrongdoing.

The Emirates, which refines and processes the precious metal to send to major markets like Switzerland, India and China, was the second-biggest gold exporter in the world after Switzerland in 2024, a year after the new rules took effect. Smuggled gold from Russia, Yemen and Sudan continues to flow into the UAE, the report says.

The UAE introduced the new guidelines to regulate the gold trade, including responsible sourcing and vetting supply chains, after a global anti-money laundering body raised concerns that the UAE was not doing enough to stop criminals and militants from hiding wealth there.

Despite the new rules, the UAE imported at least 591 tons of illicit gold, valued at $74 billion, the report says. Gold smuggled out of conflict zones, Russia or African countries accounted for 42% of the UAE's total imports of the precious metal in 2024, the report says.

Imports of the precious metal mined and smuggled out of Africa made up nearly half the gold coming into the UAE from the continent, the report said. Some of that gold entered the UAE officially, through third countries. That trade showed a slight increase in 2024, according to the report.

“The UAE remains by far the main destination for gold linked to armed conflicts in Africa. And it continues to be a major destination for gold exports from countries subject to international sanctions,” the report said.

The UAE did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report’s findings.

Swissaid said most of the smuggled gold in 2024 — some 453 tons valued at over $56 billion — reached Dubai refineries from African gold-producing countries, including Guinea, Mali and Sudan , a country that faces international sanctions. Nearly 29 tons of gold originated in Sudan, according to Swissaid, whose findings were based on data from the U.N., official trade statistics and civil and international organizations. Authors of the report said 2025 data was incomplete, but partial recent data showed the rising trend continuing.

“We had hoped that with the new regulations, conflict gold from countries subject to international sanctions would be stopped,” Marc Ummel at Swissaid told The Associated Press.

The illicit gold trade has been a key component of Sudan's war between the country's military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Since the war began in 2023, large quantities of gold have been smuggled out of Sudan to finance the RSF, who control gold-producing areas in Darfur and Kordofan regions, according to U.N. experts.

The RSF carried out mass killings, sexual violence and destruction in northern Darfur, in a “campaign of destruction” that U.N. experts said bears the “hallmarks of genocide.”

“From our point of view, since April 2023, all gold from (Sudan) should be considered as conflict gold,” Ummel said.

The Swissaid report found that in 2024 an additional 137.7 tons, valued at nearly $17 billion, were imported into the UAE from Russia and Yemen, which are also subjected to international sanctions.

Despite the risks associated with sourcing gold from the UAE, Switzerland was the top importer of gold from the UAE. The report said gold imports from the UAE increased drastically between 2024 and 2025 — going from 155 tons to 420 tons.

The Swiss government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The report’s authors recommended that the UAE again be placed on the “gray list” of the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force, an international body that combats money laundering and terrorist financing. The gray list calls for increased monitoring, while its “black list” recommends countermeasures against countries with the most serious deficiencies.

The FATF placed the UAE in 2022 on the gray list. It removed it in 2024 after the new gold supply chain regulations.