Staff and students at the University of Birmingham have warned that LGBT rights are not adequately protected at its new campus in Dubai where being gay or transgender risks imprisonment, flogging and execution.

They have called on the university to make clear what safeguards staff and students have in the Gulf emirate given that same-sex behaviour, identifying as transgender, and LGBT advocacy are illegal on the campus, which is classified as a public space subject to Dubai laws.

All public displays of affection, pregnancy outside marriage or within same-sex marriages, which are not recognised by the Gulf emirate, would also violate Dubai law, according to the university’s Rainbow Network, which represents LGBT staff. Even wearing an LGBT lanyard could be considered an act of advocacy and therefore illegal, it added.

Although the university has committed to giving staff and students at the Dubai branch, which opened in September, the same rights under its internal polices as they would enjoy in the UK, its ability to provide protection to anyone reported to the emirate’s authorities for breaking the law, whether on or off campus, will be limited, the LGBT committee warned in a briefing.

In an email sent to staff, the Rainbow Network said: “The campus cannot be considered to be private due to the number of people and external visitors who will be there, so anything illegal which happens on campus … is at risk of being reported to the authorities. Similarly, the university cannot do or support anything which is in direct contravention of Dubai laws.”

While the handbook for Dubai staff still explicitly covers internal protections for gay and transgender staff, some references to LGBT equality have been removed. References to religion have been added to the definition of harassment, raising concern that making positive statements about LGBT rights could be interpreted as insults in breach of the revised policy, said the Rainbow Network.

James Brackley, the president of the Birmingham branch of the University and College Union (UCU), said: “The fact that they’ve removed elements of the existing policy suggests a watering down of LGBT rights.”

The university has drafted an urgent returns procedure for students considered to have broken the law and who need its help to return to their home country, which will be provided at the discretion of senior staff on the Dubai campus. This will also apply to university staff, as long as they have booked travel insurance through the university.

Gay people who report homophobic attacks in Dubai have been jailed with their assailants. Photograph: Rabih Moghrabi/AFP/Getty Images

Brackley said the university’s management failed to clarify in a meeting this week the legal support that will be made available to staff and students who fall foul of Dubai laws.

He added: “The university are now firefighting issues they clearly had not anticipated. We are especially concerned at the lack of assurances over the safeguarding of LGBTQ staff and students. They have not been clear at all about repatriation. Their policy is flawed. Once you’re detained you’re entirely at the mercy of the Dubai authorities.”

Max Winthrop, the chair of the Law Society’s employment law committee, said it was dangerous for the university to assume that repatriation would be straightforward. He said: “It’s far more likely that someone gets bunged in jail before repatriation can happen.”

Preet Kaur Gill, the MP for Edgbaston, the area in Birmingham where the university is based, said she would raise the issue with the institution’s vice-chancellor, David Eastwood, as a matter of urgency. She added: “Staff and students from the LGBT community are right to be concerned over the watering down of their LGBT rights, and the guidance from the university does little to assuage their worries.”

The shadow international development minister wrote to Eastwood last week asking for assurances that migrant workers building the Dubai campus would not be mistreated, given the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) poor record on labour rights and deaths caused by unsafe working conditions.

Gay people who report homophobic attacks in Dubai have been jailed with their assailants, and women who report being raped can be imprisoned for adultery unless they have four male witnesses to support their case.

The Guild of Students wants the university to fund one of its officers to support the Dubai students on the new campus. But the guild would need to be locally rebranded as a student association because unions are banned in the UAE.

The guild’s president, Reece Roberts, who opposed the opening of the campus, said the university needed to be proactive rather than waiting until a student was jailed to make a clear policy. “There needs to be guidance on what is acceptable or not,” he added.

The Dubai branch is primarily aimed at students from the Middle East and south-east Asia, and will have 4,500 students by 2020 when the £100m campus is completed. Only some recently recruited UK staff, whose contract states that working at the new campus is a fundamental part of their job, will be obliged to work there.

A Birmingham University spokesman said staff and students on the Dubai campus were made aware that equality law in the UAE was significantly different to the UK and should ensure they do not cause offence.

He added: “The university is committed to treating all members of its community fairly, equally and with dignity and respect. Whilst we are sensitive to differences in law, societies and cultures, we expect all members of our community, wherever they are based, to adhere to our values in their interactions with each other.”