Helping Camel Jockeys

On May 8, 2005 the UAE entered into a partnership with UNICEF to identify children employed as camel jockeys and repatriate them to their countries of origin at the government's expense.

It was the latest in a series of increasingly stringent measures dating back to 1993 that authorities in the UAE had taken to bring the use of underage camel jockeys to an end. And it turned out to be the key to finally ending the practice.

Beginning in May 2005 and extending well into 2006, UNICEF established rehabilitation centers where the children could be housed and receive counseling and medical care as needed. It also conducted a DNA testing program both in the UAE and the boys' countries of origin to ensure that the repatriated children were indeed returned to their families and not traffickers posting as their parents.

"We've had a 96% success rate to find the families," said Mr. Omar Shehadeh, the UNICEF official leading the repatriation effort in the UAE. "In a lot of cases the father was working in the UAE in a non-camel job. Many of the kids were born here." He added that the jockeys "were compensated as adults" by the UAE prior to repatriation even though many were paid while working as camel jockeys.

As of October 2006, 1,077 underage jockeys had been processed through the program and repatriated, Mr. Shehadeh said. "We are finished with phase one. We only got three kids in the last month. In the next phase we will try to find ex-camel jockeys who returned to their country of origin without entering the repatriation program so they can be compensated as well."

(On December 17, 2006, the Cabinet of the United Arab Emirates agreed to expand the UNICEF partnership specifically to include former camel jockeys who left the country before or outside of the legal system put in place for repatriation and rehabilitation.)

"When we met for the first time here 500 days ago, most of you were skeptical, afraid to be involved in the matter and voiced concern that the move might be a mere camouflage or a public relations campaign.....but we made it clear that we were looking for credible partners to help repatriate those children to their homelands and get their rights as well as assistance and rehabilitation," Colonel Najim Al Hosani, director of community police, Abu Dhabi told the a meeting of UAE and UNICEF officials on Sept. 22, 2006.

Determined to end the use of underage jockeys, UAE officials had prepared for months to launch the UNICEF partnership.

"The mission was not easy, but we were determined from the beginning to launch and implement a model initiative to repatriate child camel jockeys to their original countries and provide them with care, rehabilitation and assistance,'' Col. Najim said.

In December 2004, the government transferred anti-trafficking authority from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Ministry of the Interior, which has greater police powers. At the same time, the government transferred regulation of camel racing from the Camel Racing Federation to the Ministry of Interior.

The following February, the Minister of the Interior created a Special Committee on Camel Racing and organized a 70-person Anti-Trafficking in Persons Unit to enforce the law and channel boys from the camel camps to the care centers.

In March and again in April 2005, the government announced that a new ban on underage camel jockeys would be promulgated soon and would provide stiff penalties for offenders. A period of amnesty was announced, with camel owners given until May 31 to provide the government with a list of all underage jockeys.

The UAE government also initiated talks with the nations thought to be the boys' countries of origin, seeking their cooperation in the repatriation effort that was about to begin. Ambassadors were called to the Ministry for talks after which one Pakistani diplomat told Gulf News: "Previously, some human smuggling has been happening. Parents would send children here on false passports or under forged parentage."

The Interior Ministry implemented DNA testing of parents and children at the point of entry into the UAE to confirm that they were actually from the same family, and took retinal scans of each child in order to maintain positive identification of every child brought into the country.

On May 10, the Ministry of Interior announced that citizens of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sudan, Mauritania, Eritrea, Somalia and India would not be allowed into the UAE if they did not have their own passports. The practice of allowing children to enter the UAE on "family passports" was halted with a six-month amnesty. But federal immigration officers at Dubai International Airport began enforcing the new passport rule immediately.

With the UNICEF program in place to care for the children, on July 6, 2005, UAE President HH Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan issued a Federal Law banning camel jockeys under 18 and authorizing penalties of up to three years in jail and/or fined a minimum of Dh50,000 (U.S.$13,600). Penalties are doubled for repeat offenders.

By the end of 2005, more than 1,000 boys had been repatriated and another 39 were housed in UNICEF care centers. Each child in the camel jockey program has received extensive medical, psychological, educational and other support in the UAE and in their home countries.

UAE authorities required camel jockey employers to ensure that every child was compensated, including payment of any back wages that were owed. Children have received at an average of 1,000 dirham (US$273) per month of employment and a "severance" payment of 21 days wages per year of employment.

Protocols were established to ensure that these funds were received by the children, including establishing trust bank accounts in the child's name, and that they went directly to benefit the children. In addition, the UAE government has paid US$1,000 per child to develop educational, vocational and social programs in the children's home communities.

Every boy that was processed through the program was debriefed and facts began to emerge about their experiences. Through this process, officials learned that many had been brought into camel racing by relatives and were paid for their labors.

"We have started the process of registering the children according to international standards agreed with UNICEF," Colonel Najim told the Emirates News Agency in July 2005. "UNICEF's technical expert is looking at each and every file that we are registering. No information has yet been uncovered to suggest that any kidnapping of any of the children occurred, contrary to suggestions in the international media."

Based on information gathered as the children were brought into the program, criminal investigations were initiated. Through October 2006, 51 criminal cases were initiated in the Dubai courts and another 47 in the UAE courts. The cases involved immigration-related offenses, abuse and putting children in dangerous situations.

As the boys began arriving in their countries of origin, UNICEF generated story after story for the organization's web site detailing the boys' experiences. A release published Aug. 11, 2005 was headlined "36 Bangladeshi camel jockeys arrive home."

"Some of these children were trafficked from Bangladesh, others were sent there to earn money for their families back home and others were used as underage jockeys to earn money for the family living in the UAE," the release said.

Another UNICEF release dated Aug. 16, 2005 and headlined "Camel jockeys coming home" indicated that some children had returned home accompanied by their parents, and even so the families faced uncertain futures.

"Abdullah's mother explains: 'We left [Bangladesh] nearly nine years ago. Both Abdullah and Ahmed were born in the UAE and worked on camels' backs. The money they earned was our main income,'" the release said. "'I almost could not recognize this city [Dhaka]; and my sons do not know this place at all. They are confused. I have no idea how we will start a life here all over again,' says another worrying mother."

Human rights advocates and UNICEF officials interviewed by the BBC acknowledged that it appeared a significant number of the boys had been trafficked by parents or other relatives.

"From the cases we've seen, you had a variety of ways that the children were brought in." UNICEF's Mr. Shahada told BBC Radio 5 Live on October 16, 2006. "One of the first ways were the families, actual family, brought their kids here. They left them here, and they went back home."

Human rights activist Sharla Mousabih, director of City of Hope Shelter in Dubai, told BBC that some of the harshest criticism of the UAE, including allegations of kidnappings and slavery, was unfair. "And I am disgusted with this," she told the BBC World Service Radio, "because in the first place, the traffickers were the parents. And they were not abducted children. They were basically trafficked by the parents and endorsed by the government, the country of origin, endorsed to leave the country."

The Khaleej Times reported Sept. 22, 2006 that all camel jockeys that had been trafficked had been repatriated. "Dr. Omer Abdi, UNICEF regional manager for the Middle East and North Africa, termed the UAE pilot initiative as one of the most important worldwide," the newspaper reported.

The program is now moving to a new stage in which efforts will be made to locate former camel jockeys within the UAE and those who might have returned to countries of origin without going through the program so that they can be compensated and receive any needed care.