Boy's kidnapping shows lengths crime ring will go to find jockeys for camel races
September 24, 2000
The Associated Press
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- All 10-year-old Mohammed remembers is meeting a mysterious red-bearded man in his village in Pakistan, and then waking up from a drug-induced stupor in an airport thousands of miles away.
One other thing: he says the red-bearded man told him he was now a camel racer, at which point he fled the airport.
The case has thrown renewed light on an abuse that is gaining increasing attention from human rights advocates: the use of children as jockeys in the camel races that are popular in the Persian Gulf.
Although the United Arab Emirates banned the use of child jockeys seven years ago, tiny Pakistanis or Bangladeshis are still being smuggled into the oil-rich Gulf with promises -- usually false -- of wealth. Since they are lighter than adult jockeys, children as young as 4 have reportedly been forced to race camels and risk dangerous falls.
Police believe little Mohammed Zubair Arrian was kidnapped, drugged and smuggled into Abu Dhabi on a Pakistan International Airlines flight from Islamabad on a forged travel document.
The boy said he met the red-bearded man in Medina Syedan, his village in Punjab province. He remembered losing consciousness in his village, but nothing more until he awoke at Abu Dhabi International Airport.
"When I opened my eyes, I was in a totally different world," the hazel-eyed, brown-haired child said in an interview. The red-bearded man "threatened to kill me if I made any noise. But as soon as he turned his back, I ran for my life."
A passer-by found him lost and crying on the streets of Abu Dhabi on Sept. 6, and turned him over to police.
Ansar Burney, a Pakistani human rights lawyer, happened to be visiting the Emirates, heard of the case and approached Emirates authorities and the Pakistani Embassy. He said Mohammed phoned his father, who had filed a missing persons complaint at his village police station. The father sobbed with relief, Burney said.
The red-bearded man is still at large.
The Emirates Camel Racing Association declined comment on the use of children for camel racing, refusing even to say what penalties are imposed for violating its 1993 ban on jockeys under the age of 15.
A 1999 U.S. State Department Human Rights Report on the Emirates said "relevant labor laws often are not enforced, as those who own racing camels and use the children come from powerful local families that are in effect above the law."
London-based Antislavery International, which has campaigned against the use of child jockeys, says it knows of no one being penalized for the practice.
How could a drugged child be smuggled into a foreign airport? Burney said airport, airline and immigration workers often take bribes to look the other way.
"God saved this boy; he is very lucky to have escaped," Burney said. "We are grateful for the Emirates authorities, who did everything possible to help us in this case." He said he was arranging to get Mohammed home.
Although Mohammed seems to have been the victim of an outright kidnapping, some parents are so poor that they sell their children to men recruiting camel jockeys, to begging or drug smuggling rings.
Burney was credited four years ago with bringing home a group of five children smuggled to the Emirates to ride camels. In 1998, he persuaded Saudi authorities to release 22 children who were used to smuggle drugs into the kingdom.
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