UAE delegation heads to Mauritania to support programs for former camel jockeys

Under the directive of His Highness Lt. General Sheikh Saif Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE Minister of Interior, a delegation led by Brigadier Nasser Al Awadhi Yahya Al Minhali, Head of the Special Committee on Former Camel Jockeys, will travel to Mauritania to follow up on the UAE government's support of UNICEF programmes set up in the African nation to assist children formerly employed as camel jockeys in the UAE.

The visit follows a similar trip to Pakistan where the UAE Ministry of Interior delegation presented the first payment to the Pakistani government for direct compensation to former camel jockeys.

The delegation will also visit the children and their families and participate in the opening of the training workshop for magistrates on child trafficking.

The UAE, along with UNICEF and governments of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sudan and Mauritania, have put in place a historic initiative that has ended the use of children as camel jockeys, helped resettle nearly 1,100 former camel jockeys and begun attacking the poverty that drove desperate parents to send their children thousands of miles away to work. UNICEF has described it as a program that should serve as a model for other countries.

The earlier agreement signed between the UAE and each of the source countries--namely Bangladesh, Mauritania, Pakistan, and Sudan--enabled the Independent Claims Facility to provide compensation to former children camel jockeys employed in the UAE between 1992 and 2005.

The UAE government has recovered all the children working as camel jockeys and repatriated them to their home countries. There currently are no children that work as camel jockeys in the UAE since the government banned the practice in 2005. Robots are being used as jockeys in camel races instead across the UAE.

Brigadier Al Minhali said, "This visit follows the directives of the leadership and in accordance with the policies put in place by the founder of the UAE, the Late Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, and supported by His Highness the President, and his Deputy and his Crown Prince, in addition to the follow up of His Highness the Minister of Interior."

Brigadier Al Minhali added that the programmes are comprehensive in scope and include the repatriation, rehabilitation and reintegration of Mauritanian jockey children involved in camel racing in the United Arab Emirates and present a initiative of the UAE to create the best possible future for children who worked as camel jockeys.

Working closely with UNICEF and with the Mauritanian government, the UAE is creating educational opportunities for each child and providing support to communities to protect other children from the dangers experienced by the former camel jockeys.

"The UAE delegation is tasked with the responsibility of ensuring programmes set up to help these children are being rolled out as planned and designed to maximize the benefit for the children and their communities," said Brigadier Al Minhali.

"We are committed to helping these children by providing meaningful support and we will work closely with the Mauritanian authorities and our partners at UNICEF to assure that we continue to provide real benefits for the children."

Ghassan Khalil, UNICEF's Chief of Child Protection Unit at UNICEF's Gulf Area Office said, "Following the successful repatriation, rehabilitation, and reintegration of children with their families and communities, the UAE government extended the support to develop the capacities of the communities of the children and to contribute towards the development of community-based child protection mechanism in Mauritania, Sudan, Pakistan and Bangladesh."

Khalil added that the "visit to Mauritania aims at strengthening the partnership between the UAE government and UNICEF and the respective implementing authorities in Mauritania. We commend the UAE government for its continued efforts in making sure that children are receiving appropriate care and support back in their home countries. It is a mutual effort between the UAE and source country governments to stop exploitation of children and provide them with a better life."

Last year the UAE government extended its support of community based interventions in the source countries through UNICEF, by committing additional resources to help children once employed as camel jockeys.

The UAE/UNICEF program is providing educational and other services including medical treatment and vocational training.

The UAE/UNICEF/MAURITANIA program has created a regional solution to end trafficking by stopping the demand and supply.

This includes a ban on the use of children in camel racing in the UAE and the substitution of robot jockeys for humans, stiff penalties for those caught trafficking or employing children, and stepped up border controls such as the requirement for machine-readable passports and retinal scans.