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From Anti-Slavery:
Boys, as young as four years old, continue to be trafficked to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as camel jockeys, despite repeated statements from the Government that this practice has stopped.
Anti-Slavery International sent a photographer to the UAE in 2004, to investigate whether children were still being used as camel jockeys, following government announcements that new regulations were being enforced.
Photographic evidence proves that using children as camel jockeys is commonplace in Dubai and other Emirates.
In July 2002, the UAE Government announced that using children under-16 and lighter than 45 kilogrammes to race camels would be banned from 1 September 2002 and offenders punished. From what Anti-Slavery International saw in January 2004, and evidence from organisations in the countries from which children are taken, the regulations against this abuse are still not being implemented.
Traffickers are abducting or luring young boys away from their families in South Asia and Africa with promises of well-paid work, education and training. In reality they are kept in brutal conditions, deprived of food and water to keep them light and subjected to hazardous work; racing at a speeds of 40-50 kilometres per hour.
A photo gallery is here.
