Child slavery in the middle east

Before the Gulf states were blessed with oil the practice was not as widespread as it is today. Now the rulers of the Gulf states have more money than they know what to do with. You may well have seen reports of some of the extravagances that occur on television. The richest horse race in the world is in Dubai, sponsors are few and, as the UAE is a Muslim country, gambling income is nil. Greyhound races are similarly run at great expense and generate no income. Such sports are a means for the ruling families to compete with each other. Massive sums of money are spent on the animals by each family. There are special animal hospitals for the racing camels where no expense is spared. A camel jockey however is nothing more than ballast. If he gets hurt it is easy to buy another camel jockey.The jockeys will tipically start their life in the same way as millions of other children in the Indian subcontinent. Perhaps having parents who are poor, but still have dreams for their sons which do not involve camels. Then maybe at the age of two or three the children go outside to play and never return. They are kidnapped by local gangs who will deal in any commodity that makes money. The children will then be taken by adults who when questioned may claim to be the children's parents. They will then travel, perhaps along the ancient slave routes to Karachi, and across the Gulf.The work of a camel jockey is no holiday. Away from their parents, in a foreign country with no legal status, the children have no one to protect them. They must exercise the camels seven days a week in heat that even the local people shelter from. There is no choice about whether to work on the camels or not. A beating or two and a couple of days without food convinces them all. There is nowhere to run to. Many of the children are told a story about being unwanted and being sold by their parents into slavery, just in case they were considering trying to get home. Before the camel races the children go without food, not as a punishment, but to keep their weight down so the camels will run faster. The children receive no schooling and grow up without even knowing the country of their birth.The move comes after widespread international criticism of the use of young children to ride camels during the long and often hazardous races. Officials say a prototype of the robot was successfully tested on Saturday. Aid workers say there are up to 40,000 child jockeys working across the Gulf. Many are said to be have been kidnapped and trafficked from South Asia. The issue of child camel jockeys has been an embarrassing one for the Emirates, says the BBC's Gulf correspondent Julia Wheeler. Camel racing is one of the UAE's traditional sports and an important part of the region's heritage.One in a series of laws was introduced this month to forbid the use of jockeys under the age of 16 from taking part in the sport. Now it seems there will be no need for the rules to be flouted, our correspondent says. Mechanical light-weight jockeys have been designed for the purpose to be used in the races. "The mechanical jockey is light in weight and receives orders from the instructor via a remote control system fixed on the back of the camel," the daily Gulf News said, quoting an official statement. At a test in the Emirates, members of the royal family of Abu Dhabi said they were impressed. the idea is likely to be received positively by human rights groups, says our Gulf correspondent. They say several thousand boys, some as young as four, work as jockeys - many after being abducted or sold by their families. Many of the children are told a story about being unwanted and being sold by their parents into slavery, just in case they were considering trying to get home. Before the camel races the children go without food, not as a punishment, but to keep their weight down so the camels will run faster. The children receive no schooling and grow up without even knowing the country of their birth. Occasionally, in response to pressures from outside the region, rules are written to restrict the legal age and weight of camel jockeys, but when the camel belong to a sheikh, a trainer will always choose to break the rules if it gives the camel a better chance of winning. The trainer receives a small prize if his camel wins. The camel jockey receives nothing.Once the children grow too large to be of any use as camel jockeys a lucky few will be employed by the camel stables, a few more will be able to get work by employers who know and can exploit their situation. However, if they ever step out of line in the future they risk being arrested as illegal immigrants. Throughout the Middle East the punishment for being an illegal immigrant is a fine and the punishment for not paying a fine is prison. Through no fault of his own, a camel jockey could end his days in the inhumane confines of an Arab prison. Occasionally an effort has been made to repatriate children once they outgrow their usefulness, but, as no records are kept about where the children came from, this merely dumps the children into the slums of a nearby country.The insult "camel jockey" has worked its way into the languages of the Middle East to mean someone with little education. Many of the people who use this term are ignorant of the true origin of the term and often those that understand prefer to keep quiet rather than risk upsetting the wealthy people who run the traditional sport of camel racing.