Expatriates in the United Arab Emirates Emirates. Expatriate Afghan businessmen, traders, and entrepreneurs formed an Afghan Business Council of Dubai in 2005. The organisation strives to develop economic, cultural, and social relations between Afghanistan and the UAE, and to promote the interests of the Dubai Afghan business community. The Afghan community in the UAE forms the second largest diaspora of Afghans after the United States. Over 500,000 Bangladeshis live in the UAE. Expatriates from Bangladesh in the United Arab Emirates form one of the largest communities along with others hailing from the Indian subcontinent. They are spread out over the various emirates of the country, with
United Arab Emirates present day emirate of Ras Al Khaimah, as a major regional trading and maritime hub in the area. The maritime dominance of the Persian Gulf by Emirati traders led to conflicts with European powers, including the Portugese and British. Following decades of maritime conflict, the coastal emirates became known as the Trucial States with the signing of a Perpetual Treaty of Maritime Peace with the British in 1819 (ratified in 1853 and again in 1892), which established the Trucial States as a British Protectorate. This arrangement ended with independence and the establishment of the United Arab Emirates on 2 December