Camel racing

From Free net encyclopedia

Camel racing is a popular sport in Australia, the Middle East, and Africa. Professional camel racing, like horse racing, is an event for betting and tourist attraction. Camels can run at speeds up to 40 mph/64 km/h in short sprints and they can maintain a speed of 25 mph/40 km/h for an hour.

[edit]

Child Camel Jockeys

Template:NPOV-section Image:Camel jockey ansarburney.jpg

Each year, children as young as 2 are trafficked from countries such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Sudan for use as jockeys in the Persian Gulf States’ camel racing industry. While official policies are in place requiring a minimum weight of 45 kg (100 lb) of the jockey, these restrictions are ignored by most in the racing industry because those who own the camels are also the heads of states.

Child camel jockeys are often sexually and physically abused; most are physically and mentally stunted, as they are deliberately starved to prevent weight gain. According to a documentary by the American television channel HBO and the Ansar Burney Trust, many of the children are only fed two biscuits a day with water. Others are forced to wear metal helmets in the scorching heat of the desert so they bleed through their noses and lose weight that way.

Forced to work up to 18 hours a day, those children who fall asleep are punished with electric shocks while those who disobey orders are tied in chains and beaten.

These tiny slaves working for the pleasures of rich Arab sheikhs face substantial risks even when they do everything right. Each year, many are seriously injured and several are stampeded to death by camels. They are provided no medical treatment whatsoever and those who die are buried in the desert in unmarked graves. They are not allowed to leave their lives of miseries and those who try to escape are killed. According to ABT, in one such incident a child camel jockey was killed when his owner ran over him in his truck.

The child jockeys live in camps encircled with barbed wire near the racetracks. Because the children are isolated from their families and find themselves in an unfamiliar culture, they are dependent upon their captors for survival.

The U.S. Government estimates there are thousands of trafficking victims being exploited for use as camel jockeys throughout the region. Many are unable to identify their parents or home communities in South Asia or Sudan, particularly after prolonged servitude in the Middle East. Unlike other forms of trafficking that usually involve adults or older children, child camel jockey trafficking presents enormous challenges to source country governments and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) seeking to return rescued children to their parents and original communities.

Still, there have been many success stories. Hundreds of children have been rescued from camel farms in Oman, Qatar and UAE by the Ansar Burney Trust - human rights organisation - and taken back to their original homes or kept in shelter homes.

However, they report that in many instances the children rescued were not just abducted or trafficked victims - they were those who had been sold away by their own parents in exchange for money or a job abroad. If they were returned, the children would again be sold for the same purposes. Other children who had been abducted from their homes could not be returned because they were disabled, did not speak their native languages, or did not know how to live outside the camel farms.

It is estimated that there were as many as 20,000 children working as camel jockeys in the Middle East - up to 5,000 of them working in the UAE alone. The vast majority of whom were brought from third world countries of South Asia and Africa.

After sustained pressure by human rights groups, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates finally agreed in early 2005 to abandon child jockeys — robot jockeys were used instead. At a cost of about $5,500 and a weight of about 26 kg, the robots are remote-controlled by camel trainers who follow the camels in cars. The robots can use whips and can also shout to the camels. the robots must be sprayed with a special "perfume" to allow the camel to accept them as real.Oman followed suit in May 2005.

A shelter home was established by the UAE in Abu Dhabi under the control of Ansar Burney Trust where the rescued children were to receive an education, good food, medical facilities and were to be taught how to live outside a camel farm. As of the end of 2005, it is estimated that as many as 800 children have been sent back to their home countries.

However, (Ansar Burney Trust) was concerned that not all former child jockeys are accounted for, and that some might still be used in illicit night-time races. The Trust stated that children were still being used in some day time races and provided video evidence to prove that night-time races were taking place with children.

[edit]

News

LIST OF NEWS ARTICLES: on Child Camel Jockeys in the Middle East

[edit]

External links

Ansar Burney Trust - brought world attention to the plight of child camel jockeys and rescued hundreds of children from camel farms; operates shelter homes for trafficked victims; persuaded governments of Qatar and UAE to ban use of children as camel jockeys in 2005.