UAE to visit Sudanese child camel jockeys

PROGRESS ASSESSMENT: A UAE delegation will visit Sudan to assess the progress of children once controversially employed as camel jockeys. (Getty Images)

A UAE delegation will visit Sudan to assess the progress of children once employed as jockeys in the emirate’s camel racing industry.

A group of politicians, including Brigadier Nasser Al Awadhi Yahya Al Minhali, head of the Special Committee on Former Camel Jockeys will spend five days in the African nation, state news agency WAM reported on Sunday.

The delegation will follow-up on the UAE government's support of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) programmes established to assist children who were employed as camel jockeys in the UAE.

The trip is part of a program that has already taken the UAE Ministry of Interior delegation on similar visits to Pakistan and Mauritania.

The UAE, along with UNICEF and governments of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sudan and Mauritania, have established an initiative that has ended the use of children as camel jockeys, and helped resettle nearly 1,100 former child camel jockeys.

Since the UAE government banned the practice in 2005, robots are being used in place of human jockeys in camel races across the UAE. The government also introduced penalties for those caught trafficking or employing children, WAM said.

According to WAM, the UAE government is investing more than $11 million to help the former jockeys and to create employment opportunities in their communities.

Print | Email | Discuss this article |

READERS' COMMENTS

View all comments (0)

Have your say

Click here to post a comment

Add your Comment All posts are sent to the administrator for review and are published only after approval. ArabianBusiness.com reserves the right to remove any comment at any time for any reason. Please keep your responses appropriate and on topic.
Name *
Remember me on this computer
Email *	(Your email address will not be published)
City
Country
Subject *
Comment *
Notify me of further comments
Security Code *
Please click post only once - your comment will not be published immediately.

MORE FROM ARABIANBUSINESS.COM