Call n°266 (from 4 December 2003 to 15 January 2004)

CHILDREN USED AS JOCKEYS

In the United Arab Emirates camel racing is very popular. These races are not held in secret; even tourists are advised not to miss the show, for camels can run up to 14 kilometres in ten minutes. The camels are young, and so are their riders - sometimes as young as five or six years old. These children are attached to the animals’ backs, just as their parents are attached to their debts. After several international campaigns the government promised to enforce the law banning such practices but this promise has been lost in the dust.

At the age of four the little Irshad was kidnapped by a "friend" of the family and sent to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. There he became a jockey which meant getting up at 4 a.m. and being attached to the back of a camel that could run up to 60km an hour. Irshad’s parents searched for him, in vain. After three years, in October 2002, a Bangladeshi NGO [1] found the little boy and managed to return him to his family.

THE FATE OF CHILD JOCKEYS

Most of the children used as jockeys for racing come from South Asia. They are often boys who were kidnapped or sold by their parents. These very poor families are convinced that this "work" will enable them to improve their income. Sometimes they are given "advance" payments to persuade them to give away their children. This advance payment for future work by children is a practice that is unfortunately not rare in southern Asia where "bonded labour" is commonplace. Future jockeys are taken to a country in which everything is unfamiliar: the language, the culture, the environment. They are put on strict diets before the races so that they weigh as little as possible. These very young riders have great difficulty controlling the camels they ride; it is not unusual for them to fall off or to be dragged along by the animal.

CONTINUOUS PROMISES

Such practices have theoretically been outlawed in the United Arab Emirates since 1980. Since 1992 several international campaigns have successively attempted to put a stop to them [2] In 1993 the Association of Jockeys of the United Arab Emirates banned the use of child jockeys. In 1998 the government recognized that "there are unfortunately cases of use of young boys as jockeys for races although this is illegal". In 2001 the Higher Council for Family Affairs, presided by the wife of the Emir of Qatar, criticized the organization of races. In July 2002 a new law banned the use of children under the age of 15 or weighing less than 45kg. Theoretically second offences are punishable by jail sentences. This measure was supposed to be enforced as of September 2002 but has still not been applied.

Many five-year-olds are still used in these races, as Irshad was for three years. Organizations in Bangladesh also note that when child jockeys are 11 years old they become "too heavy" and are immediately sent back home without any compensation after several years of work. At the last International Labour Organization conference in July 2003 the United Arab Emirates agreed to receive an international delegation to sort out this problem. That is why it is important to step-up the pressure now.

A bonded labourer is a man, often a peasant or unskilled worker, who is bound to a wealthy landowner or businessman by a debt. This situation often lasts for generations. To the capital originally borrowed, exorbitant interest rates are often added, so that reimbursement of the debt becomes impossible. For the organizations and unions involved in the struggle against such practices, the main difficulty lies in the fact that government authorities are themselves landowners or their allies.

THE LAW AND INTERNATIONAL MEASURES

Use of children in camel races violates the laws of the United Arab Emirates and international laws on slavery and forced labour. The Emirates have ratified Convention n°29 of the International Labour Organization which prohibits "the use of forced or compulsory labour in any form whatsoever".

The Emirates have also ratified the United Nations convention on Children’s Rights which requires States to take "all the appropriate measures at the national, bilateral and multilateral levels to prevent the kidnapping, sale or trading in children for any purpose or in any form whatsoever".

CALL IN LIAISON WITH

Anti-Slavery International www.stophumantraffic.org

LETTER: you can copy and paste the standard letter below as it is or change the working to suit your style. Send your letter to the President of the UAE (name and address in the letter) without forgetting to add your own name and address and signature.

Reaction time: as soon as you receive this call, but to ensure that the campaign benefits from as much support as possible, it will last until end-January 2004.
http://www.sheikhmohammed.co.ae/english/email/remail.asp

His Highness Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan
President of the United Arab Emirates
Ruler of Abu Dhabi
Manhal Palace
PO BOX 280, Abu Dhabi
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

(date)

Your Highness,

Through Réseau-Solidarité (10, quai de Richemont 35000 Rennes, France), I have been informed about the illegal use of children as camel jockeys in the United Arab Emirates.

I urge the UAE Government to undertake the following steps as a matter of priority:
1. Carry out regular unannounced inspections to identify, release and rehabilitate any child who is being used as a camel jockey, and ensure that all those responsible for trafficking and employing underage jockeys are prosecuted according to existing laws.
2. Provide details of the number of prosecutions, the number of successful convictions and the sentences passed against those trafficking and employing children as camel jockeys since 1 September 2002.
3. Introduce, as a matter of priority, legislation that prohibits and punishes the employment of children under the age of 18 in hazardous work or work that could jeopardise their health or safety, including as camel jockeys.
4. Ratify and implement the United Nations Protocol to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in persons, especially women and children (2000), which supplements the Convention on Transnational Organised Crime.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Yours faithfully,

(signature + name and address)

[1] Bangladesh National Women Lawyer’s Association, a partner of the British organization Anti-Slavery International

[2] Réseau-Solidarité of Peuples Solidaires has already participated in a campaign on this subject, in May 1999: Appel n°207 "Tiercé perdant pour les enfants jockeys".