Children continue to be trafficked from countries such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sudan and Yemen to be used as camel jockeys in the UAE. Furthermore, Anti-Slavery International also has evidence that children are also being trafficked to be used as camel jockeys in other Gulf states including Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, and also internally in Sudan.

The use of children as jockeys in camel racing is itself extremely dangerous and can result in serious injury and even death. Some children are also abused by the traffickers and employers, for example by depriving them of food and beating them. The children's separation from their families and their transportation to a country where the people, culture and usually the language are completely unknown leaves them dependent on their employers and de facto forced labourers.

The trafficking of children for use as camel jockeys is prohibited by International Labour Organization Conventions 29 and 182 and by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, all of which have been ratified by the UAE, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Sudan. It is also prohibited under ILO Convention 138, which has been ratified by the UAE, Kuwait and Sudan.

The United Arab Emirates
Anti-Slavery International understands that the Government of the United Arab Emirates has introduced three new decrees to combat the use of children as camel jockeys, which relate to the requirement for camel owners to bring underage camel jockeys to the authorities for repatriation; the obligation on children from certain countries, where there is known to be a problem of trafficking for use as camel jockeys, to enter the UAE on their own individual passport; and the prohibition of the use of camel jockeys under 16 years old or weighing less that 45 kilograms.

It is of concern that a new law against the use of child camel jockeys, which was announced at the end of March, has not yet been passed. We would ask the Government to provide details of this legislation and when it will come into effect, and also details of the above decrees, indicating how they will be effective in ending the use of child jockeys, when previous measures have failed to do so.

It must be noted that these new measures are the latest in a series that have been announced by the UAE over many years:

• The Government itself reported to the Committee on the Application of Standards in 2003, and in previous years, that the employment of any child under the age of 15 has been prohibited since 1980 under the Federal Labour Code.
• The UAE's independent Camel Jockey Association has had a rule since the early 1990s that using children younger than 14 or lighter than 45 kilograms as camel jockeys is prohibited.
• In 1993 UAE President Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan banned the use of children as camel jockeys.
• In July 2002, Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Chairman of the Emirates Camel Racing Federation and Minister for Foreign Affairs, promulgated Order No.1/6/266, prohibiting children under 15 or weighing less than 45kg from being employed in camel racing. It also specified 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. A fine of 20,000 dirhams (US$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 dirhams will be imposed for subsequent offences. The ban came into effect on 1 September 2002.

It is of serious concern that despite all of these initiatives the evidence below clearly shows that children are still being trafficked to work in the UAE as camel jockeys.

• On 20 February 2005, the Pakistan Embassy in Abu Dhabi repatriated a nine-year-old camel jockey to Pakistan, as reported in the media 1. The boy was placed in an Edhi Foundation shelter in Karachi. According to information from the Edhi Foundation and the Centre for Research and Social Development, he was taken to the UAE with his father from their home in southern Punjab via Karachi. He worked as a camel jockey for six years. Initially he worked in Abu Dhabi, and then worked in six or seven different places mostly in UAE states. The last race he participated in was in January 2005. Normally he would get up at around 4am, or 5am in winter, and work seven days a week. His employers beat him and he broke his arm on at least two occasions during camel races. He also told of two Sudanese boys who worked with him as camel jockeys, and six other Pakistani boys in the last camp he worked at. There is no indication that the Sheikhs concerned nor the handlers were prosecuted or that the other boys mentioned have subsequently been rescued and rehabilitated.
• Also in February 2005, Anti-Slavery International received photographic evidence from credible sources of child camel jockeys training at the Nad al Sheba racetrack outside Dubai (copies available).
• According to media reports in November 2004 2, Pakistan's Minister for Overseas Pakistanis, Tariq Azim, stated that some 2,000 children from countries such as Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Mauritania are working in camel race clubs in the UAE. Many others have either died or been crippled, according to the Minister. He referred to several recent cases of Pakistani children returned from the UAE after working for several years as camel jockeys.
• In October 2004 a documentary shown by the US television broadcaster, HBO, featured footage of children training on camels and living in squalid conditions with poor food and a lack of amenities. The programme also includes substantial evidence that children were beaten and abused, including showing children with bruises and scars.3
• The Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International (ABWTI) reports that it has rescued several other child camel jockeys, including six boys aged between 12 and 15 who were returned to Pakistan in August 2004 having worked as camel jockeys for at least two years. The ABWTI also announced that a five-year-old Pakistani boy died after a fall from a camel in Al-Ain, UAE on 28 September 2004. The boy fell off the camel during training on 15 September, and the camel trampled him leaving serious head injuries from which he did not recover.
• In September and October 2004 the Bangladesh National Women Lawyers' Association provided Anti-Slavery International with details of several cases involving Bangladeshi children who had been trafficked to the UAE to work as camel jockeys. These included eight boys who were still thought to be working as camel jockeys in the UAE. All of the eight boys were between three and twelve years of age when trafficked.
• Also in 2004, Anti-Slavery International obtained photographs of dozens of camel jockeys who appear to be between the ages of six and 14. The photographs were taken in January 2004, mostly at the Nad Al Sheba racecourse in Dubai and include children exercising camels, training, preparing for races and racing. In training, young children are seen alongside adults, but only children take part in the race itself. Many of the children in the photos are clearly under the age of 12; the majority of the jockeys participating in races appear to be well below the age of 15.
• Anti-Slavery International was provided with information documenting the cases of two Sudanese camel jockeys who had been repatriated to Sudan in 2004 (February and May respectively). The Sudanese boys were approximately five and six years old respectively when they were taken abroad. Both had worked as camel jockeys for around six years before being returned to Sudan. While one had worked exclusively in the UAE the other had worked in Qatar as well as the UAE.

Evidence of child camel jockeys beyond the UAE
As has already been indicated, there is evidence that children are being trafficked and used as camel jockeys in Kuwait, Oman and Qatar, and also within Sudan. Some of this evidence is outlined below:

• A picture of a camel race in Oman, printed in the 26 November 2004 issue of The Guardian, clearly shows the use of underage camel jockeys (copy available).
• Anti-Slavery International has been provided with information regarding a camel races that took place in Abutalha, near Kassala, eastern Sudan, 5-7 October 2004, organised by the Sudanese Camel Race Association (SCRA). This evidence includes film footage of the races. Officials from the SCRA, the Arab Union for Camel Races and the Kuwait Camel Racing Club attended the races. The camel jockeys appear to be children aged between seven and 13 years old, some from the local area and some from other regions of Sudan.
• In September 2004 there were media reports that Qatar was drafting a bill to ban the use of under 18 year olds as camel jockeys in an attempt to curb the trafficking of children for use in the sport, indicating that this was a problem in the country.4
• The 2005 report of the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, notes a large amount of cases received concerning the issue of trafficking of children to be used as camel jockeys. These include the case of A.I.A., a child trafficked from Sudan to Abu Dhabi when he was five years old in 1998. He was used as a camel jockey in Kuwait as well as the UAE and ended up in Doha, from where he returned home in February 2004.5
• On 2 March 2003, The Denver Post carried a feature following a journalist and photographer who spent seven days at the Kuwait Camel Racing Club in Sulaibiya, outside Kuwait City. They reported that around 15-30 children, mostly African, regularly trained and raced at the club and lived in tents nearby. The photographs accompanying the piece clearly show young children riding camels, training, and in the camps.6
• In 2003 and again in 2005 the ILO Committee of Experts report expressed concern at the situation of children under 18 years of age involved in camel racing in Oman and asks for information regarding the recent promulgation of by-laws prohibiting forced labour and the worst forms of child labour.
• In its 2003 and 2005 reports the ILO Committee of Experts also raises concern about child camel jockeys in Qatar. In its 2005 report it "invites the Government to redouble its efforts to improve the situation and to take, without delay, the necessary measures to ensure that no children under 18 are trafficked to Qatar for sexual or labour exploitation, including camel racing."

Anti-Slavery International is very concerned that this evidence points to the fact that the trafficking of children to work as camel jockeys is a problem in several Gulf states. Anti-Slavery International therefore urges the governments of all the states in the region to take measures to ensure this practice is eliminated.

Implementing measures to combat the trafficking of children as camel jockeys
Reports of very young children (between four and 12 years old) being used as camel jockeys in the UAE have been brought before this Working Group every year for the last eight years. The information above clearly shows that boys below the age of 15 continue to be used as camel jockeys in contravention of the law. It also indicates that children are being used as camel jockeys in Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Sudan. It is noteworthy that the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, states in his 2005 report that, "the number of individual cases of boys trafficked to be used as camel jockeys received by the Special Rapporteur highlights a pattern indicating that this problem persists and that measures need to be taken to address it."

However, prosecutions of those exploiting camel jockeys remain extremely rare. For example, information provided by the Government of the UAE to the ILO direct contacts mission in October 2003 revealed only three successful prosecutions, all of foreign nationals, since the 2002 law came into effect. Given the very public use of underage camel jockeys as evidenced above and the fact that the UAE Government states that the police are carrying out inspections during races, this is an extremely disappointing figure.

It is also vital that measures taken to combat the use of children as camel jockeys in any of these countries, ensure that the children receive full rehabilitative care and that repatriation is carried out appropriately and sensitively. Rehabilitation must include psychiatric care and counselling to deal with the traumatic experiences they have been through and to help adjust to their freedom; bridging education to bring them up to speed with their peer group; and medical care for injuries suffered. Steps must be taken to try to trace parents before the child leaves the destination country, and full child protection and rehabilitation services must also be made available in the home country. The Gulf states could help to support poorer countries of origin to provide such services. In the past there have been cases where children have been handed over to traffickers posing as parents and in some cases parents themselves have been involved in the trafficking. Solutions must be found for those children whose parents cannot be traced or for whom family reunion would be inappropriate.

Outstanding recommendations
The ILO Committee of Experts (2005) expressed concern about the trafficking of children to be used as camel jockeys in the UAE, in Oman and in Qatar. It invited the Government of the UAE to "redouble its efforts to improve the situation and to take, without delay, the necessary measure to ensure that no children under 18 years are trafficked to the United Arab Emirates for labour exploitation, including camel racing". The Committee reminded the Government of Oman that it "shall take the necessary measures to ensure that no children under 18 perform work which, by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out, is likely to harm their health, safety or morals". The Committee invited the Government of Qatar to "take, without delay, the necessary measures to ensure that no children under 18 are trafficked to Qatar for sexual or labour exploitation, including camel racing".

In addition to these recommendations, Anti-Slavery International would also urge the Governments of the UAE, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Sudan to:

1. Take urgent steps to implement legislation, including carrying out regular unannounced inspections to identify, release and rehabilitate any child who is being used as a camel jockey and ensuring that all those responsible for trafficking and employing underage jockeys are prosecuted. In particular measures taken to rehabilitate and repatriate child camel jockeys must ensure that children are provided with all the psychiatric and medical care, counselling and education they require, that family tracing is carried out before repatriation, and that services are put in place to care for the child if family reunion is not possible.
2. Provide full statistics, broken down by year, of all the prosecutions brought, successful convictions obtained and the sentences passed against those trafficking and employing camel jockeys since 1 September 2002.
3. Introduce, as a matter of priority, legislation that prohibits and punishes the employment of children under the age of 18 in hazardous work or work that could jeopardise their health or safety, including as camel jockeys.
4. Ratify and implement the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children (2000), supplementing the Convention on Transnational Organized Crime.

1 Nine-year Boy Used to Work as Camel Jockey in Abu Dhabi Arrives Karachi, Pakistan Press International Information Services, 21 February 2005.
2 Children Continue to be Smuggled for Camel Races, Daily Times, Pakistan, 14 November 2004, and Pak Kids Continue to be Smuggled for Camel Races, Hindustan Times, 16 November 2004.
3 Perskie, Joe, Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, HBO, 19 October 2004. Footage was shot between May and August 2004.
4 Qatar Set to Ban Underage Camel Jockeys, Agence France Presse, 8 September 2004.
5 Report of the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, Juan Miguel Petit, E/CN.4/2005/78/Add.3, 8 March 2005
6 Saddled with a Risky Ride -- Child camel jockeys key to sport of camel racing in the Kuwaiti desert, Denver Post, 2 March 2003. The photographs, with detailed captions, are available online at http://www.nppa.org/competitions/
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