Camel jockeys

This newspaper carried a story last week about a 12-year-old child from Sunjerpur who had been sent to Dubai for work by his father. The child was sent back to Pakistan drugged and in chains, according to the father. The man said that he had received an anonymous call telling him that his son would be arriving at Karachi airport. The child reportedly told his father that the men who had picked him up from the Dubai airport had taken him to a stadium and forced him to ride camels often beating him up for not sitting on the camels properly.

The story highlights two things. Firstly, parents are quite happy to ‘lease out’ their kids because of poverty in Pakistan. Some make their children work in the country while others send children abroad to make ‘good money’. This child’s father admitted that it was temptation of money that had made him send his son to the UAE. This practice will continue unless the government comes up with a comprehensive strategy that not only stops child labour but also addresses poverty, particularly in areas like South Punjab and interior Sindh.

The other disturbing development that the story points to is that even though the UAE government has banned camel racing officially, the sport is still being practised in the country. The father claims that he did not know that his child would be made to work as a camel jockey, but it is probable that even if he had known, he would still have sent his child to Dubai for the money and there are many more parents like him.

The Pakistani government needs to take this up with the UAE government. Being on friendly terms with them does not mean that the government can look the other way, it needs to nip this in the bud.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 3^rd, 2010.