UAE Sends Over 1,000 Smuggled Children Home
Shaveta Bansal - All Headline News Contributor Dubai, UAE (AHN) - According to government official, United Arab Emirates has sent 1,075 children, smuggled as jockeys to race camels, to their homes in from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sudan, Mauriania and Eritrea. According to a report by the Associated Press, UAE began enforcing the a ban on child jockeys last year, after the U.S. State Department cited the country as a top destination for smuggled children who were being pressed into camel riding. Some 20 smugglers have been prosecuted or trafficking in child jockeys. "They are now a thing of the past, they no longer exist in the Emirates," Deputy Interior Minister Maj. Gen. Saif al-Shafar said of the child jockeys Sunday. Since the campaign, riders in lucrative camel races now have to prove they are older than 18. The UAE, Qatar and other Gulf countries have also begun using small robots as jockeys, with camel owners using remote control to issue commands. Lightweight robots allow more speed and stamina in the races, which are far longer and more endurance-based than horse racing, said Lt. Colonel Nasser al-Minhali, the chief government racing monitor.
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