‘No child jockey in EmiratesÂ’
LAHORE, June 19: No Pakistani or any other country’s child has been participating in any camel race in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) since the imposition of a ban by the Emirates on child jockeys two years ago.
“Now robot jockeys have taken their place,” Maj Ibrahim, UAE social support centre interior ministry official, told Dawn on Tuesday.
He brought three Pakistani child jockeys here and handed them over to the Child Protection Welfare Bureau.
“Since the UAE government banned child jockeys in the country two years ago, no (foreign) child is being kept by any of his countryman for camel races,” he claimed. He said he was not sure whether some Pakistani families were still residing there with (such) children.
“Some 700 Pakistani, 200 Bangladeshi, 60 Sudanese and 22 Mauritius child jockeys have been sent to their countries since June 2005,” Maj Ibrahim said, adding that the UAE government had also punished those involved in child trafficking. He said the parents of most of such children were usually involved in it.
About reports that some 3,000 Pakistani child jockeys were working in the UAE, he said it might be a guess but no statistics were available with the (UAE) government to support it. He said the government had also paid the earnings of child jockeys when they returned to their countries.
CPWB Director Programme Zubair Ahmed Shad told Dawn that of 700 child jockeys, 694 had been reunited with their families while the bureau was searching for the families of the remaining ones.
Former jockeys Arshad Hashim, Muhammad Saeed and Zeeshan are the new entrants to the CPWB. The mother of Saeed also came with him and the Federal Investigation Agency has taken her into custody for investigation.
Ten-year-old Saeed does not know when his mother had taken him to the UAE. “I fell several times from a camel while training and my leg also fractured. I earned 400 dirham every month,” Saeed said who lived in Rahim Yar Khan before leaving for the UAE.
Hashim, 15, of Rahim Yar Khan, and Zeshan, 11, of Dera Ghazi Khan said their uncles had taken them to the UAE several years ago. Now they want to go to their native towns to live with their families.
Source: Dawn
Date:6/20/2007
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