Helping Camel Jockeys

UAE Has Outlawed Underage Jockeys and Compensated Former Jockeys

Miami, FL - December 22, 2006 - The United Arab Emirates has ended the use of underage jockeys in camel racing and has developed a model solution for compensating and supporting the victims, according to a motion filed today in U.S. District Court in Miami seeking dismissal of a lawsuit filed by American class action lawyers.

The motion to dismiss said the lawsuit jeopardizes the successful UAE-UNICEF program that is returning former camel jockeys to their home countries and providing them with compensation, care and education.

The motion noted the lawsuit doesn't belong in U.S. Courts because none of the parties even reside in the U.S., and the leaders of the UAE have been at the forefront in implementing and enforcing laws to outlaw the use of underage jockeys in camel racing.

That view was supported in a letter sent this week by Pakistani human rights activist Ansar Burney urging the plaintiffs' attorneys to withdraw the lawsuit. Burney, who brought the camel jockey problem to the world's attention, noted "the sincere cooperation of the UAE government" and said that withdrawing the suit "would be in the interest of humanity and human rights."

Legal documents filed Friday on behalf of leaders of the UAE said, "The UAE, working with UNICEF, the governments of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sudan and Mauritania, and numerous local NGOs (non-governmental organizations), has created a model for resolution of international trafficking issues. As a result of these international efforts, the practice of using underage camel jockeys has ended in the UAE, and the lives of former camel jockeys are being changed for the better today."

"The UAE Program should be protected from interference by United States courts, and encouraged as a matter of comity, not frustrated through litigation," the documents say. "The UAE Program will, without question, provide benefits to more victims, and will do so faster and with less uncertainty than would litigation, with its attendant delays and legal hurdles."

UNICEF issued a report this month noting that 1,077 underage camel jockeys had been compensated and repatriated to their home countries and praising the UAE program as a model for other countries in the region.

"They reached out to form innovative partnerships and took bold steps to protect children," Sigma Huda, UN Special Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, said in the UNICEF report. "Most importantly, the UAE initiative puts children first by providing support to victims of trafficking and exploitation, including towards their reintegration back in their home countries and communities. It's now up to the rest of the world to follow the initiative and example set by the UAE."

In December, the UAE government initiated an extension of the program to 2009 and expanded its scope. The government allocated a minimum of $9 million for the extended program, which covers former camel jockeys who left the country before or outside of the legal system put in place for repatriation and rehabilitation.

The program also provides for health care, education and other services as appropriate through partners in their home communities.

The lawsuit was filed in September by Motley-Rice, well-known class action litigators, on behalf of several anonymous former camel jockeys from Pakistan and Bangladesh. It asked for class action status to include all former camel jockeys in countries throughout the Persian Gulf region.

It named Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, the Prime Minister and Vice President of the UAE and the Ruler of Dubai, and his brother, Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid al Maktoum, the UAE Minister of Finance, as defendants. And it sought to hold them answerable for the acts of virtually all camel jockey traffickers who brought boys to the UAE and all racing camel owners who employed them.

The suit was filed under an arcane law, the Alien Tort Statute, which was passed by the First Congress in 1789 and aimed at preventing piracy and assaults on U.S. diplomats abroad. The camel jockey lawsuit seeks an inappropriate application of the statute because it attempts to insinuate the Federal Courts into U.S. diplomatic efforts to combat human trafficking in the UAE and elsewhere in the world, the defendants argued in legal filings.

The U.S. State Department has launched diplomatic efforts to combat human trafficking around the world under the authority of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000.

The State Department's September 2006 Trafficking In Persons Report states: "[o]nce a destination for thousands of young boys trafficked from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sudan and Mauritania to work as camel jockeys, the UAE enacted a law banning the practice in July 2005, and all identified victims were repatriated at the government's expense to their home countries."

"The suggestion that Plaintiffs' counsel or this Court sitting in Florida would be in a better position to address these issues, or assume their direction, is misguided," the court documents say.

The motion for dismissal was supported by a declaration from former U.S. Ambassador Theodore Kattouf, who said court action could interfere with the invaluable relationship between the U.S. and UAE. The dismissal motion also noted that the UAE has expressed concerns about the impact of the lawsuit in a diplomatic note to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice.

The attorneys representing the ruling family include Joseph G. Finnerty III of DLA Piper and Marcos Daniel Jimenez of Kenny Nachwalter.