Free Republic

KUWAIT today held the first regional camel race using robots as riders after child jockeys were banned from the lucrative sport following criticism by human rights groups. Teams from the six Gulf Arab states participated in the race held on the dusty tracks of a racing club outside the capital Kuwait City. "We hope this sport, which is part of our cultural heritage, will be spared from suspicion,"said Kuwait's Energy Minister Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahd al-Sabah who opened the five-day championship. The remote-operated robots are shaped like small boys. Rights groups said thousands of boys, some as young as four, worked...

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...

DHAKA (Reuters) - Alam was kidnapped five years ago, taken to the Middle East and forced to race camels. Now the 12-year-old is back home in Bangladesh but faces a whole new set of problems, such as trying to recognize his mother. "Police say Bedena Begum is my mother and I was taken away from her," Alam says shyly. "I also feel she is my mother, but I can hardly remember her face," the boy says, mumbling in broken Bangla, a mother tongue he is having to learn all over again. Alam is staying at a camp set up to...

GENEVA, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Bangladeshi children kidnapped or sold to work as camel jockeys in the United Arab Emirates will be repatriated after the Gulf state introduced a ban on underage jockeys, an international aid agency said on Tuesday.But the youths, sold for as little as $75 to work in the dangerous but popular sport in the Emirates and other Gulf states, face difficulties in their homeland, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM)."Many of these children were trafficked at a very early age -- perhaps between two and five -- and often cannot recognise their parents," Shahidul...