Posted on 12/02/2004 7:48:27 PM PST by NormsRevenge
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - A rehabilitation center for underaged camel jockeys opened Thursday, providing medical care and education for 16 boys from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sudan, in the most recent effort by the Emirates to stamp out child abuse long associated with the popular sport.
The center - the first of its kind in the region - was quietly backed by the government, which has banned the use of jockeys under the age of 15 but is often reluctant to openly discuss the problem, even when the subject is its efforts to crack down on abuse.
Officials at the Emirates Camel Racing Association were unavailable for comment Thursday, the National Day holiday.
Ansar Burney, a Pakistani activist who has campaigned against the practice, said that Abu Dhabi's crown prince contacted him last month after seeing him in a documentary aired on HBO detailing the plight of the young jockeys.
When the prince, Lt. Gen. Sheik Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, said he wanted to crack down on the abuse, Burney suggested Emirates officials open the center to provide medical care and basic education for the children.
The center is at a military facility in Abu Dhabi, one of the seven emirates that make up this Gulf country.
Camel races are immensely popular in the Gulf and children - some as young as 4 - have been favored as jockeys because they are light.
The jockeys, riding bareback or strapped to the camels' backs, risk dangerous falls and trampling.
Burney said there are about 5,000 child jockeys in the Emirates and some 40,000 in the region. Children from poor countries are either bought from their parents or kidnapped and brought to the Emirates with fake passports where they are incarcerated in camps.
While the Emirates banned the use of underage jockeys with measures that began to be instituted in 1993, the laws are openly ignored, with even televised races showing small boys riding the huge beasts.
"These children wake up quite early and work up to 17 hours everyday, they live in private jails and are subjected to slave labor," Burney said.
At the center, the children will receive physiotherapy and psychological treatment. It opened with 16 children from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sudan ages 3 to 10. They were rescued with the help of local authorities in a number of emirates, Burney said.
The government has provided facilities for the center at the Sheik Zayed Military City, which Burney said will help protect them from the agents who smuggled them to the region. It will be funded by Burney's Pakistan-based human rights group, Ansar Burney Welfare Trust, which has helped repatriate some 370 underaged jockeys this year.
Children are expected to spend eight to 12 weeks at the center, then be sent home if possible.
"We are going to look for their parents, if we find the parents and they were not involved (in putting the children to work as camel jockeys), then the children will be reunited with their families," Burney said.
"If the parents were involved, they (the children) will stay at our centers where we will continue to provide them with professional education that can help them find jobs in the future," he added.
Young camel jockeys push their camels to run at the start point of a race as the camel keeper run out of the track to avoid being hurt by the camels in this file 2001photo in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. A rehabilitation center for underaged camel jockeys was inaugurated Thursday Dec. 2, 2004, in the most recent effort by the government to stamp out child abuse long associated with the popular sport.
lol
A companion center will be opening up in San Francisco.
There's a racist joke somewhere in there that I just don't think I shall say.
I saw this special on Bryant Gumble's HBO sports show. I think Berny Goldberg did the special and it was very good, and very sad what happens to these poor boys.
This is SERIOUS??!!??
I thought you were doing a satire complete with racial epithet!
At first I thought this would be a ZOT going the way of the "Wetbacks" thread.
For the jockeys or the camels?
I know I shouldn't but, ROFLMAO!!
While the Emirates banned the use of underage jockeys with measures that began to be instituted in 1993, the laws are openly ignored, with even televised races showing small boys riding the huge beasts.
Where the heck is Amnesty Int'l and the UNHRC is what I want to know? ;-)
Not unlike every woman in every muslim country...
"Where the heck is Amnesty Int'l and the UNHRC is what I want to know? ;-)"
The UN actually sponsored a documentary on worldwide child abuse several years ago that showed up on HBO. One of the segments dealt with the plight of camel jockeys. Made me sick with sadness. I couldn't say, though, what else they've done to help these children beyond their usual condemnation followed by studied inaction.
This is NO joke, according to Berny Goldberg's documentary anyway. He and the Pakistani gentleman were both tearing up at the end of this sepcial during the interview on the fate of these boys (who wouldn't?). These are innocent little boys, often "raped" by the dirtbag towelheads who keep them captive at the race tracks. Very, very sad and disgusting.
This camel looks pretty damn fast to me.
These little children are slaves - many are howling with fear as they are strapped to the backs of these huge animals, and many are injured or killed. It is beyond sickening.
To those who think it is funny: imagine your own little three or four year old, kidnapped, weeping, and enslaved for the pleasure of rich men in a foreign country. Imagine them being beaten and starved, raped and killed for sport. Imagine their short lives as a hell, and death as the only release, for there are none to save them.
Anyone who mocks the plight of these children will someday be made to curse their own hardness.
I guess this is to be expected from people whose "religion" encourages them to ritually abuse women and young boys, strap on explosives and indiscriminately kill innocent civilians and behead defenseless captives to satisfy their bloodthirsty Moon god.
We should also be aware that this is the type of cultural "diversity" that is currently being exported to Europe and the US.
"From my cold, dead hands."
Damn! Still laughing!
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