diff --git a/contrib/debian/control b/contrib/debian/control
index ddedaf16b..2237ed5c9 100644
--- a/contrib/debian/control
+++ b/contrib/debian/control
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ Build-Depends: debhelper (>= 10.3),
                fontconfig,
                fontconfig-config,
                fonts-dejavu,
+               locales,
                libappstream-glib-dev (>= 0.6.13),
                libarchive-dev,
                libcolord-dev (>= 1.0.0),
diff --git a/contrib/debian/rules b/contrib/debian/rules
index f37fe6c3b..f9c343263 100755
--- a/contrib/debian/rules
+++ b/contrib/debian/rules
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 #!/usr/bin/make -f
 # -*- makefile -*-
 
+export LC_ALL := C.UTF-8
 export DEB_BUILD_MAINT_OPTIONS = hardening=+all
 
 #GPGME needs this for proper building on 32 bit archs