You mean they have finally realized that there is a minimum age at which a person has to be to know how to sit properly on an animal you are riding....
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| Arabia |
| Limits Set for Boy Jockeys in Emirates' Camel Races |
| 2005-04-04 |
| ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates, March 31 - As he scratched the cigarette burns on his arms, his face blemished with cuts, 8-year-old Salih Sulaiman recounted the most tormenting moment of his life as a slave. About a year ago, Salih said, he watched as a boy fell off a camel, broke his neck and was left for dead. "They wrapped his body up in a blanket before the race and hid it," Salih, a bony Sudanese jockey, said in disbelief. "Then they buried him in a hole after the race was over." No one mentioned the incident again, but that day Salih decided he had to escape the camp where he had been held for four years. Far from Dubai's high-rises and Abu Dhabi's luxurious lifestyles, thousands of young boys like Salih endure Dickensian conditions as jockeys in camel races in the desert hinterlands of the United Arab Emirates. Boys primarily from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sudan have long been kidnapped or sold by impoverished parents to race camels in the United Arab Emirates and in other Persian Gulf countries, where child slavery remains an open secret. Child welfare groups estimate that as many as 5,000 children toil as jockeys or in camel farms, known as ozbahs, in the United Arab Emirates alone. Most work unsalaried, with any payments going to smugglers and occasionally to the children's parents. Now, after years of campaigning and pressure by human rights groups, the emirates' government has begun to crack down on the use of child jockeys, promising to impose tough new penalties on violators and hoping to close loopholes used to smuggle children into the country. Among the changes is a new law requiring jockeys to be at least 16 and weigh at least 100 pounds. The law came into effect on Thursday. Rest at link. |
| Posted by:ed |
| #1 You mean they have finally realized that there is a minimum age at which a person has to be to know how to sit properly on an animal you are riding.... |
| Posted by: BigEd 2005-04-04 1:56:11 PM |