Thank God we live in civilisation and can have sex out of wedlock!

A Filipina maid and her Bangladeshi lover will each receive 100 lashes and be deported for having sex out of wedlock in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, a newspaper said on Monday.

The Sharjah Sharia Court ordered the woman to be lashed and deported for "unlawful sex", the Gulf News reported.

The man would be lashed 100 times for adultery and jailed for a year for entering the house belonging to the maid's sponsor without permission.

Advertisement: Story continues below He will then be deported.

Foreign workers in the UAE and most other Gulf states must be sponsored by an employer to work in the country. In some cases, employers hold the worker's passport and can deny them permission to change jobs.

According to court papers, the couple had sex in the house of the woman's sponsor.

The woman's sponsor saw her lover leaving the house and reported it to police, Gulf News said, adding that, after their arrest, the two admitted having sex.

The report said Muslim foreigners who commit adultery are lashed and deported, while non-Muslims are jailed and deported.

Both the Filipina and the Bangladeshi are Muslims, it said.

The UAE aims to be an international business and tourism hub and relies heavily on foreign workers, but also seeks to maintain traditional laws, leading to the periodic arrest of foreigners for offences such as sex out of wedlock or kissing in public.