Child Jockeys: 40,000 children on slave labour as .!child camel jockeys

Child Jockeys: 40,000 children on slave labour as .!child camel jockeys .! in Middle East and Arab countries

The Pakistan .!s renowned human rights activist Ansar Burney has said that some fourty thousand innocent children  mostly from Asian countries including Pakistan, India and Bangladesh are working on slave labour as .!child camel jockeys.! in miserable circumstances in UAE and Middle East and Arab countries. Chairman of the Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International, Prisoners Aid Society and Bureau of Missing and Kidnapped Children, Ansar Burney by profession a senior lawyer, who practically rescued hundreds of such children, whose ages are from one and a half year to three from the most miserable circumstances said on Friday that further 40,000 innocent children are waiting for Ansar Burney Welfare Trust Int.!l to rescue to save their precious lives.  Ansar Burney said that last month a four-year boy from Pakistan felt down from camel and died when camels ran away on his body, in another incidence last week
another Pakistani one and a half year old boy fell off from camel and lost his legs in UAE.  Ansar Burney, known as .!human rights Angel.! said that more than fourty thousand (40,000) innocent children are living in most miserable circumstances and also dieing in a very miserable conditions for which one cannot even imagine. .!These innocent children of humanity are living in iron tents, without electricity in the temperature of above 50 degree centigrade (above 100 degree Fahrenheit), where the sexual abuse is common.!. Ansar Burney said. Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International has rescued hundreds of such children from the slave labour and rehabilitated them in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Srilanka, Sudan, Ethiopia and other parts of the world.  Years of abuse has led these children to have their upper legs flesh rubbed away, their bones being damaged as well as their body structures. The gruesome
idea of making these innocent children disabled at such a young age is an enjoyable sport! Injuries are a common factor; over the years the injury deteriorates and causes long term defects in the lower part of the body. They even lost their sexual ability because of use them as child camel jockeys from the age of one and a half year or start from two years of age and used them till the age of seven. .!These children will face problems once and if they
start a family. The riding and rubbing on the camels continuously will be damaging on their sexuality. The
ill treatment of these employers and traffickers is very upsetting but very true. Some children are also abused and taken advantage of by traffickers and their employers.!. Ansar Burney added.  Ansar Burney, of the Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International, only charity working practically to free the child jockeys, said: "These children are
purposely underfed so that their weights are kept down. "The food they. re given in the camps is very dirty and
unhygienic. They have to feed the camels, but are beaten if they try to eat the animals.! good food. They are allowed to eat only half bread in 24 hours. They get up early 3 O.!clock in the morning and go to sleep at 9 at night; they work for 18 hours a day, while the ages of these children are one and a half year old to six years. They are continuously on slave labourwithout any rest, 7 days a week and 375 days a year and work for 18 hours per day.
"They sleep in hot, crowded huts made from corrugated irons sheets. It.!s boiling hot out in the desert yet they have to train twice or three times a day. It.!s hard and painful work and, after a while, the boys have permanent damage to their sexual organs from bouncing up and down on the camels.  "During training and in races, they often fall down
and are badly injured or crushed to death. Because it.!s illegal to keep underage jockeys, they never receive medical treatment and some of them die very painful deaths. Their bodies are just buried out in the desert in unmarked graves.!.He said, the uses of children as jockeys in camel racing are extremely dangerous and mostly result in
serious injury and even death. Children are as young as .!one and a half.! year that are used and abused by these very people who have no heart and no fear.

Ansar Burney said with sorrow and grief that after giving them training in UAE, now the users of these innocents are using another tactics and selling them or giving them on rent to other Middle East and Arab countries to use these children as .!Child Camel Jockeys.!.  Ansar Burney said the rulers and other Sheikhs of the ruling families own most of the camel camps. He said in some cases the parents are selling their milk-sucking babies or the human smuggler agents kidnapping them or using tactics to take out children from the laps of parents and selling them in Middle
East and Arab countries to use them on slave labour as .!Child Camel Jockeys.!.  The trafficking of young children for forced labour is one of the fastest growing areas of international crimes. The study of Ansar Burney Welfare rust
International, pointed out that child trafficking is not new, but it is a current practice in most of the Middle East and Arab region. However, it has considerably gathered momentum over the past years. The use of children as jockeys in UAE from Pakistan, however, dates back to early 70.!s.  .!There are estimated 30,000 active racing camels and about 17 racetracks throughout the UAE. Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah, which are centres of this activity,
have five of the main stadiums near the Rulers Palaces in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah .!. Ansar Burney said.
The high-risk areas for child trafficking, it says that for child traffickers Rahim Yar Khan and Dera Ghazi Khan and Southern Punjab, as well as some parts of Sindh and Baluchistan are the centres for trafficking in children, and are major sources of children trafficked as camel jockeys.  He said, it is mainly the work of international networks that have made it a sophisticated and well-organised human trafficking industry in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Srilanka, Ethiopia, Sudan and other poor countries. It has become an earning for those criminals who torture the lives of these innocent children and enjoy the pleasures of life from the tears and cursing of these children.
He said according to the history and trend of this sport, it says that camel racing in UAE is an old sport, but they are not using there on children as .!jockeys.!. The Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International during his work and research of several years on this particular issue never find any Arab child on camel from UAE.

Why is trafficking of children are so popular?

Highlighting the root causes of trafficking in children, it says that they are multiple and complex. Some more apparent, which especially persuade parents to part their children at such a young age are poverty they have so many children and no money to feed them all. If they don .!t sell one or two of their children they will all die of poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, unawareness.  And inadequate legislation and weak enforcement of related laws and may be greed in some cases. Poverty has forced many families to sell their children, some as young as one year, to find whatever work they can.Even Pakistani children are smuggled as camel jockeys to the Gulf States; some are sold by their parents and others are kidnapped by organised groups. Organised groups have made this a business on the expense of the lives of these children. He said the trafficking of children for use as camel jockeys is strictly prohibited by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and by ILO Conventions 29, 138 and 182 - all of which have been ratified by the UAE but its still grooming alarmingly.

Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister for Foreign Affairs and also the Chairman of the Emirates Camel Racing Federation promulgated Order No.1/6/266
on 22 July 2002, which prohibits children under 15 or weighing less than 45kg from being employed in camel racing. It also specifies that all camel jockeys must have proof of their age through their passports and be issued with a medical certificate by the Camel Racing Federation. But the age is still a very important factor, children as young as one and half year are being used as camel jockeys. The minister announced that the ban would come into effect on 1 September 2002. A fine of 20,000 Durham.!s ($ 5,500) will be imposed for a first offence and a second offence will lead to a ban from camel racing for one year. A prison sentence of three months along with a fine of 20,000 Durham.!s will be imposed for subsequent offences. Ansar Burney said that violation of the law enforced in 2002 is still being continued, as evidences (cases of more than 42 children deported and repatriation in April and May 2003 and hundreds till October 2004),indicates that rules are still being violated and ignored. The Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International has rescued hundreds of innocent children.As during the last 9 months, hundreds of children were deported and repatriated from UAE, Muscat, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other Arab and Middle East countries, after working for more than two and three years as camel jockeys. Even the large numbers of such children are not traceable or deducted by government officials in UAE and Pakistan and remain ignored and invisible from the scene.  .!These kids have a right to live. They should not be tortured, degraded in any way despite their parents need for money..! Burney added.  Seven-year old Mustafa is one of the children rescued by Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International from a camel jockey camp in UAE. After searching for his parents for more than six months, he was finally handed back to his family in Pakistan.!s Punjab province.  "I was playing outside my friend.!s house when I was taken away," said Mustafa. "I was sleeping with other children in a very hot shed made of iron. We were only given food as half dirty bread once a day. A lot of the children had blood coming out of their noses."  Recently Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International has made a video documentary film of more than 24 hours with a hidden video camera, on the plight of these  unfortunate children.  "The children are made to train on the camels for periods lasting up to 18 long hours twice a day," he said. "Even when the temperatures reach 50.!C or above (above 100 degree Fahrenheit), they have to wear heavy, metal helmets. It.!s clear that many of them, boys, are sexually abused by the men running the camps."  The children are attached to the camels.! back with Velcro fastenings but so rough is the ride that many of them fall off. One of the .!advantages.! of using children as jockeys is that their terrified cries make the camels run even faster.  Like Mustafa, many of the child jockeys have been kidnapped from their villages in countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Sudan. Some have been bought from  impoverished families by agents. Others are lured from home with promises to their families that they will be employed as domestic servants in cities in their own countries. In one recent case, a woman posing as the mother of three boys and two girls aged between two and seven was arrested at Islamabad airport in Pakistan. The children were allegedly being taken to Dubai to serve as camel jockeys.  Ansar Burney said that in Bangladesh, reuniting the
children with their families is a difficult task.  "Many of these children were trafficked at a very early age - perhaps between one and a half and five -
and often cannot recognise their parents. Some can no longer even speak their mother tongue," he said.