Center for Underaged Camel Jockeys Opens

[bin.dare]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4649754,00.html

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.

....

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.

[DURHAM D]

1. I saw a documentary on tv a few weeks ago on this subject.

It was absolutely heart breaking. I think the Crown Price mentioned in the article as wanting to help is really the villian. He owns and races camels and is passionate about continuing the so-called sport. If he is funding a clinic it is just a smoke-screen.