Camel jockeys try to rebuild lives
Zulfikar was eight years old when his parents sent him from Lahore to the United Arab Emirates for a career in camel jockeying.
His childhood career finally ended last November when he was placed in a special shelter set up by UAE police to rehabilitate and repatriate under-age camel racers.
“We were treated badly sometimes and I was happy to get out. Now I want to go back home – I hope they will take us back,” says the quiet Pakistani boy, now 15, with an empty, sad look in his eyes.
He is one of 46 boys ranging from the ages of 7 to 15 living in the desert camp, part of the UAE’s response to international criticism that boys, some as young as four, work as jockeys in a Beduin tradition which has been transformed into a lucrative sport in today’s oil-rich Gulf.
Since the centre was set up in November, 60 boys have been returned to their families abroad, and 46 are staying at the camp, free for the first time in years to play football, watch television or just hang out with other children of their age.
Most come from Pakistan, with smaller numbers from Sudan, Bangladesh and Mauritania, officials say.
UAE laws were tightened in March to stop UAE nationals employing boys under 16 or weighing less than 45kg.
Trafficking
London-based Anti-Slavery International said last year it had photographs to prove little boys were still racing camels, despite a 2002 government ban.
It called for proper inspections and prosecution of those trafficking and employing the boys.
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“They (the boys) are usually in a bad way psychologically and physically when they first come to us. Some of them would only get something like a piece of bread for their breakfast or some lentils” |
How they get to the camel ranches is a point of controversy.
Rights groups say they are “sold” to camel owners by agents, while the UAE authorities say it is their parents who bring them to the country, find them work on ranches, then leave them.
UAE authorities deny allegations of trafficking, saying it is the boys’ families who obtain passports from embassies in the Gulf which overstate their age.
“It’s the mother and father who give their children to the ranches for money, but the point is they should not be left in the first place,” said Fadil Muhammad, the Abu Dhabi police official heading the operation to enforce the new laws.
Four Pakistani women are currently facing prosecution over falsifying passports to allow their children to race, he said.
Robots
Both the UAE and Qatar have talked about plans to use robots operated by remote control as camel jockeys.
They say the technology has been tried and tested, but locals involved in the sport doubt it will be popular or practical.
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The UAE has introduced curbs on |
Zulfikar, reluctant to speak, says his parents gave him to a “distant relative”, who then posed as his parent in the UAE.
“He said he was my father, but he wasn’t. He was a devil,” Zulfikar said, adding the man took all of his $273 monthly wage but sent nothing back to his parents.
But Ansar Burney, a London-based Pakistani rights activist fighting to end the practice, accused police and camel owners of not being serious about rehabilitating the boys, most of whom he says are led directly to camel owners by agents in Pakistan.
“There were about 5000 boys working last year. Now about one hundred have gone to the shelter, so where have the rest gone? To my knowledge, they are sending them to neighbouring countries, dumping them,” said Burney, currently in the UAE.
Abuse
Abu Dhabi asked him last year to advise them after a US television network ran a show on Gulf camel jockeys.
“These children have lost their childhood, they are living in hell,” he said, describing starvation to keep the boys light weight to race faster, long hours and sometimes sexual abuse.
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“These children have lost their childhood, they are living in hell. These boys should get compensation” Ansar Burney, |
He said the shelter was paradise, but doubted police were able to locate most children’s parents.
“These boys should get compensation,” he said, adding he had found one as young as three.
Medics at the desert camp in a military zone outside the city of Abu Dhabi say most of the boys have had a hard time.
“They are usually in a bad way psychologically and physically when they first come to us,” says nurse Fatima Hashim, a sympathetic matronly figure dispensing medicines.
“Some of them would only get something like a piece of bread for their breakfast or some lentils – can you imagine? When he came he was as thin as a pole!” she said, pointing to Zulfikar. “He only weighed 20 kg, and what are you now – 45 kg!”
Responsibility?
“Some of them liked it riding camels but a lot of them were beaten by their bosses. Here they have a nice life and most of them don’t want to leave,” the nurse added.
Suwailim, a 12-year-old from Sudan, says his ranch chiefs fed him well and as a member of Sudan’s Rashayda tribesmen he had prior experience of camel-riding.
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Many Pakistani children have |
But he says it was his father who brought him to the UAE to jockey three years ago for the 1000 dirhams ($273) a month wage it brings.
“It was nothing but hard work, but my father said I should be patient,” said the boy, who raced camels of all ages over distances of up to 10km. “I’ve ridden camels so often now but I don’t want to do it ever again.”
He says hopefully that his father should return from Sudan to take him home.
But police chief Muhammad, visiting the camp, sounded doubtful: “They’re trying to locate his father … We’re sorry for what has happened but we’re trying to do what we can. We cannot alone be responsible.”