Anti Slavery International - Urgent Action on Child Labour
Anti Slavery International
Thomas Clarkson House
Stableyard, Broomgrove Road
London SW9 9TL
Child Camel Jockeys in the Gulf States
Babu is a tiny camel jockey from Bangladesh who weighs three stones and is thought to be four years old. He says that he misses his parents and finds life hard. When asked Babu replied that he had fallen off the camels "many times"
Sunday Telegraph
London 30, November 1997
In the United Arab Emirates (UAE) young children's lives are routinely put at risk for the entertainment of thousands of spectators at camel races. For many years boys from the age of six (and sometimes younger), have been trafficked from countries in South Asia to the Gulf to supply the demand for camel jockeys. In 1992, following the death or injury of many children Anti-Slavery International (ASI) joined other human rights organisations in Europe and South Asia in a successful campaign to stop the practice. One year later the UAE Camel Jockey Association finally prohibited the use of children as jockeys. New evidence, including dramatic video footage shown on British television Channel 4 in 1997, clearly indicates that these rules are being blatantly ignored. ASI also has evidence that new trafficking routes are opening up from Northeast and West Africa.
"They would take us and attach us with a cord to the camels' back, then they would make them run down a track covered in sand and boarded with large pointed iron posts and barbed wire. The camels had to run within the space, and the animals and children who fell were trampled by the [other] frightened animals. Those [child jockeys] who refused or who were scared were beaten and forced onto camels ... we were very frightened of falling or dying"
(Testimony of a Mauritanian child camel jockey who returned home after spending 10 months in the UAE)
Le Calame (Mauritania) 1-7 October 1995
The Life of a Camel Jockey
At this time of year, during the UAE's racing season, races are held twice a week, with two main competitions each season. During the race the child jockey has very little control over the camel. The child's duties are to scream and to whip the camel to make it run faster. The boys are strapped to the camels' backs to keep them on but they can easily slip off sideways and either get trapped underneath the camel or trampled. It is not uncommon for the children to fall off or get dragged along; sometimes to their deaths.
The boys are kept in harsh conditions. Several children can be crammed together in one room where they often have to sleep on the floor. They are frequently denied adequate food or are put on crash diets before they race so that they are as light as possible. The boys report that they are subjected to beatings and abuse at the whim of their employers, especially if judged to have performed badly.
Trafficking in children
Young boys are taken illegally from their home by traffickers who take them to the Gulf States. The children are either kidnapped sold by their parents on false pretences. They generally come from very poor backgrounds, and their parents are persuaded that the work will provide a much needed income. Sometimes "advance payments" are made to parents to persuade them to part with their children. This "advance payment" for the child's future work is not unusual in South Asia where the practice of child debt bondage is common. The children are separated from their parents at a very young age, and taken to a country where the people, language and culture are completely unknown to them. Some forget where they have come from or even who their parents are.
Liaquat was four and a half years old when he left his home in Pakistan and was taken by an agent to Abu Dhabi. The agent, Shaukat Cheema , told his parents that Liaquat was going to live and work in a sheikh's palace. Zainab Bibi, Liaquats mother said "I told him that the sheikh's wives loved children and that they would take very good care of him" Liaquat ,however, was to spend the next five years working as a camel jockey. After a few weeks of training Liaquat was made to participate in races. He remembers the race as noisy and dangerous , where more than 50 camels with screaming children strapped onto their backs would run. Liaquat personally saw about 20 children die, and more than a dozen injured every week. He recalls, "There was this one kid whose strap broke at the beginning of the race. His head was crushed between the legs of the running camel. Once the race has started it cannot stop".
Newline (Pakistan) September 1992
In addition to the previously known South Asian trafficking routes, coming from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, ASI has received information about new routes from Africa as well. ASI has evidence of children being trafficked from Mauritania to the Gulf to be used as camel jockeys. In October 1997 police Intercepted traffickers in neighbouring Mali taking young Mauritanian children to the Gulf. In 1997 there was also evidence of children being trafficked to the Gulf from Eritrea and Sudan. ASI received photographs taken in April 1997 in Qatar of young camel jockeys believed to come from Sudan.
What the law says
The UAE has ratified the International Labour Organisation's (ILO) Convention No.29 which prohibits 'forced or compulsory labour'. The UAE has also ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, a wide-ranging treaty protecting the welfare and best interests of the child, which bans trafficking in children in Article 35. Both of these international standards are violated by the trafficking of children and the employment of children as camel jockeys.
In 1993 the United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Na hyan ordered a ban on the use of children as camel riders. The decision was widely acclaimed at home and abroad.
The UAE's independent Camel Jockey Association subsequently created rules against the employment of any child under the age of 14 or weighing less than seven stone (about 45 kilos).
What You Can Do
Please write polite letters to the following address with a copy to the UAE Embassy in London (or the one for your country) and a copy to your MP, expressing your concern and urging that the Government of the UAE should, as a matter of urgency:
Improve procedures at international border, notably airports, to stop the Illegal transport of children and thus enforce existing international standards prohibiting the trafficking of children;
end all employment of children under 14 as camel jockeys (as it violates ILO Convention No.29 as well as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child), with the implementation of penalties and punishment for those found to be responsible or profiting from the children's employment;
release and rehabilitate all children currently employed as camel jockeys, making every effort to return them to their country of origin and homes and providing them with compensation;
instruct the Camel Jockey Association to regulate the races and prosecute any abuses and present regular reports to the Government on steps being taken to ensure that its ban on under-14-year old jockeys is respected;
appoint an independent monitor to report to the police and the Government, on steps taken by the camel racing industry, the frontier police and other immigration authorities to prevent trafficking in children and the employment of children under 14 in the UAE.
Head of State, President of the United Arab Emirates
His Highness Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan,Ruler of Abu Dhabi,
Manhal Palace, P0 Box 280Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
His Excellency Easa Saleh aI-Gurg
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
Embassy of the United Arab Emirates
30 Princes Gate
London 5W7 IPT