With the Gulf states’ tough stance on drugs, alcohol and indecency, more holidaymakers and expats are likely to be detained in Dubai than in other popular holiday destinations such as France or Greece.

In the last 12 months, an unmarried British couple were sentenced to three months jail for having sex on a beach in Dubai, and an English mother was also sentenced to three months after being found guilty of adultery.

Travellers are warned by the Foreign Office that they could face more severe punishments for loutish behaviour abroad than they would at home.

The Foreign Office minister Chris Bryant said that tourists should research local laws before they travel or they could find themselves in a foreign jail.

6,919 Britons were arrested abroad between April 2008 and March 2009.

Although most arrests were in Spain and the US, proportionately the most arrests were in the UAE, which has fewer British tourists and expats than many Western countries.

294 Britons were arrested in the UAE with 48 for drug offences.

The UAE is now home to 55,000 Britons and a further 1.1 million tourists visit the nation where Islam is the official religion and strict punishments are given to those who break its rules on modesty and temperance.

Thanks to the Telegraph for the above quotes.  For more information on this article visit their website.