Thompson: A new day in the desert, and the ancient animals of this arid land are readying for a race. The sport of camel racing has been around for as long as wealthy Sheikh’s have been competing for power and prestige. There is one rule to winning… the smaller the jockey the faster the camel.
And so kids are the jockeys of choice. They’re not locals, but foreign children too young to know much at all, except that they are a world away from home.
Jakir: This is the worst job in the world. The people of this country.. I give them work but they make me a slave.
Mr A: These camel jockeys are the most unfortunate children in this world… They are stories to you, to people like you they are simply stories and they are commodities for these Arab Sheikhs…
Thompson: Can I ask why you are taking the boys away ?
Policeman: Cancel! Cancel!
Thompson: We have permission. We have permission.
Cox: Take your hand of my camera.
Police: Cancel! Cancel!
Thompson: This is a story the rich Sheikhs from this land don’t want the world to see. Dubai is the glitz capital of the Persian Gulf . Its wealth is built on a brew of oil and anything-goes capitalism. Here power is measured not just by wealth but prestige, proven at the camel races. This sport is a multi-billion dollar industry. But it’s built on the backs of the world’s poorest children, trafficked from countries such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sudan and India. If this young boy looks like he’s hanging on for dear life, that’s because he is. Falls can mean serious injury, even death.
Mr A: It is like the old Greek Gladiators fights when the lions are chasing the human beings, and people are enjoying this thing. It is like that.
Thompson: This man has inside knowledge of the child jockey racket. Working in the UAE for a foreign government, he agreed to speak, on condition of anonymity.
Mr A: These people are neither Muslims nor human. They are just some cruel creatures who have no hearts other than their own interests.
Thompson: Those interests are showcased at the trophy room of the UAE’s Camel Racing Federation. Here, the race winning prowess of the UAE’s sheikhs is honoured in gold but the camel jockey’s don’t get a mention. In 1993 the UAE banned the employment of jockeys below the age of fifteen. A ban that was reinforced last September, with higher penalties.
Now, if you believe the Federation’s head, Khalsan Khamees, child camel jockey’s don’t even exist.
Khamees: Absolutely impossible, absolutely impossible, absolutely impossible to find a jockey who is below 15 years of age and it will never, never happen. Law enforcers are strictly putting this rule into practice and you will see it for yourself when you visit the camel racing venue tomorrow. And tomorrow you may ask anyone you wish to ask about this.
Thompson: It was a challenge Khalsan Khamees might wish he hadn’t made. The next morning a UAE government minder took us to film a race. But through a bungled arrangement we were taken to a race we were not meant to see. There were young boys everywhere, some barely beyond toddler age. Seemingly surprised by our presence, the police suddenly began removing the younger kids from the crowd of jockeys as they edged towards the race starting line. They demanded we hand over our pictures of children.
Thompson: I am not being searched. I am sorry we are here as official guests are we not?
Minder: Yes, I know as I told you.
Policeman: Follow the process!
Minder: I told you earlier, try to avoid filming kids.
Thompson: Well, you didn’t tell us that actually. We said we were going to come and film a race.
Minder: Yes, okay, but you are concentrating maybe on something which the UAE is trying to fight.
Man: People are taking pictures here and there, even internal areas…I have told you to take pictures outside not in the compound… Look! They are taking pictures of the bus.
Minder: Don’t go on the bus. ….because these guys are younger than the age of what we said earlier in our interview yesterday and they are all under the age of 15. They are not allowed to go and race.
Thompson: So why can’t we film them?
Minder: Well, because, you know they don’t want you to film them, that’s all!
Thompson: While they were strict with us there is scant evidence of official action against those forcing children to race camels. In this strange wonderland it’s the animals who are treated like spoilt kids. Worth up to one million dollars on the market, prize camels are taken for daily dips in their own custom-built swimming pools. Every need is catered for, including the best medical care that money can buy. It’s a standard of care the camel kids will never know.
Mr A: Even if a camel jockey lost a match he is punished.
Thompson: How is he punished?
Mr. A: He is deprived of his salary. He is deprived of his food. He is whipped. He is also abused physically, mentally.
Thompson: The camel kids live out here in the desert. Days and nights are spent not in the care of parents but under the guard of strange men. With a hidden camera, we visited one of their ramshackle huts, where two Pakistani boys spent the few hours between races sleeping on the floor. These camel racing professionals are aged just five and seven.
Thompson: So just confirming…he is from Pakistan? …And you are from Pakistan also… Brothers…And both are camel jockeys. And he is aged 5 and he is aged 7 years old (and they have been here for 2 years?
K1: Yes.
Thompson: And they race 4 times a week?
K2: 4 times a week.
Thompson: For 400 dirhams for 1 month? Can he show me how he rides? That’s about 200 dollars: a wage which goes to the adults who brought Sammy here. Sometimes they are parents but often they are imposters, traffickers profiting from this kindergarten aged child’s race winning skills. It’s from a world like this that young Jakir has come. He may be playing now, but until a few weeks ago, camel racing was the only childhood he had ever known. He thinks his age is eight, but he doesn’t know for sure. He remembers only that he was stolen from Bangladesh and smuggled to the UAE at an age when he couldn’t even dress himself. He was two.
Jakir: I don’t know. I was small when I was stolen. I did not know anything when I was small. I did not know how to ride on camels, I did not know any work. When I grew bigger I was made to work. That master beat me like a dog
Thompson: Do you ever feel sad about your life?
Jakir: I feel dead with all the work. My whole body is covered with sweat and feels weak.
Thompson: Jakir’s camel racing days are now over. He was taken into police custody when a man posing as his father was arrested with a fake passport. Now, after six years as a camel jockey, Jakir is going home.
Thompson: What’s that say?
Jakir: Jakir
Thompson: It may be among the world’s poorest nations but Bangladesh is indisputably rich in one resource -- human beings. But the most densely populated country on earth cannot provide anything like enough employment opportunities. So here it is not difficult to find parents willing to gamble their children on thin promises of overseas work. But some parents are never even given that choice -- their children are simply stolen from a country where it can be impossible to prove that they ever existed at all. We arrived in the Bangladesh capital Dhaka just days before Jakir was due to return, but plans to film his arrival were foiled by an anxious government. Thirty percent of Bangladesh’s wealth comes from the wages of its expatriate workers in countries like the UAE – income it does not want to jeopardise by pushing too hard on the camel jockey issue.
Eventually, Bangladesh’s State Minister for Expatriate’s Welfare and Overseas Employment did arrange for us to meet with Jakir as long he could join the brief picture opportunity. While Jakir struggled to remember the city he left six years ago, the Minister struggled to defend the country which is one of the largest employers of Bangladeshi labour. We have been to the UAE and we have seen these boys working as camel jockeys, some younger than him. What do you say to that? They are still working as camel jockeys.
Minister: We have not seen. We have not seen frankly speaking.
Thompson: But we have seen it.
Minister: Anyway, if it is younger than that the law is passed now and I believe in the future it will be prevented and I believe that this will be implemented very strictly.
Thompson: You have confidence in the government?
Minister: I have confidence, because the law has been passed by their own. That is why they want to implement it definitely.
Thompson: Would it concern you if the law wasn’t being enforced?
Minister: Definitely it will concern us, but I am sure it will be implemented properly.
Thompson: Jakir meanwhile is bound for this shelter for trafficked boys.
Boy: Do you want to come along with us?
Thompson: These boys are rehearsing a play depicting how they were lured into the camel jockey trade.
Boy : Hello, boss.
Boss: Yes?
Boy: We have found two chicklings. Very young, absolutely superb.
Boss: Well done! Hey, listen all arrangements have been made. Fly them out by tomorrow evening. Understand?
Boy: Yes, boss.
Boss: Hey, see there is no mess up.
Boy: Yes, boss.
Boss: I don’t like to be involved in mess ups.
Thompson: Every former camel jockey here has some experience of injury or abuse. Mamon was five when he was trafficked to the UAE . It was an injury that ended his camel jockey days.
Mamon: I was sitting on a camel -- it was very wicked. When the camel runs, there is a rope dangling in front . As soon as the camel was slapped to make it run the rope swung backwards and my leg got caught in it, and it was cut.
Thompson: The true tragedy of the camel jockey racket is found in Bangladesh’s vast and waterlogged countryside.
Out here poverty stricken families are perfect prey for traffickers. Ali Islam has returned home to his parents after spending years in the UAE riding camels -- a bite from one of them permanently disfigured him. His other scars aren’t so visible.
Latif: I put him in a school after his return but he refused to go there or even to the madrassa. He only wants to play with his friends. He won’t even eat properly, just play.
Thompson: At Rajashahi on Bangladesh’s border with India UNICEF and local government agencies are registering births -- part of a national plan of action which is perhaps Bangladesh’s best hope of guarding against the camel jockey trade. Five years ago almost no births in Bangladesh were registered, allowing children to disappear without any official trace. Now in some parts of Bangladesh up to 70 percent of new births are recorded.
Health Volunteer: The card acts as the right of the child d is proof of that he is a citizen of Bangladesh.
Thompson: It is a beginning but a long way from a solution. Tens of millions of Bangladeshi children remain vulnerable to what is effectively a slave trade.
Mr A: If there is no demand there will be no supply. Simple as that. So pressure should be put on these Gulf governments not to use children as camel jockeys and not only on paper or as promises -- they should work in close cooperation with international organisations.
Thompson: But the racing continues and as long as self interest is driving this game a different future for these children is not worth betting on.
And so kids are the jockeys of choice. They’re not locals, but foreign children too young to know much at all, except that they are a world away from home.
Jakir: This is the worst job in the world. The people of this country.. I give them work but they make me a slave.
Mr A: These camel jockeys are the most unfortunate children in this world… They are stories to you, to people like you they are simply stories and they are commodities for these Arab Sheikhs…
Thompson: Can I ask why you are taking the boys away ?
Policeman: Cancel! Cancel!
Thompson: We have permission. We have permission.
Cox: Take your hand of my camera.
Police: Cancel! Cancel!
Thompson: This is a story the rich Sheikhs from this land don’t want the world to see. Dubai is the glitz capital of the Persian Gulf . Its wealth is built on a brew of oil and anything-goes capitalism. Here power is measured not just by wealth but prestige, proven at the camel races. This sport is a multi-billion dollar industry. But it’s built on the backs of the world’s poorest children, trafficked from countries such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sudan and India. If this young boy looks like he’s hanging on for dear life, that’s because he is. Falls can mean serious injury, even death.
Mr A: It is like the old Greek Gladiators fights when the lions are chasing the human beings, and people are enjoying this thing. It is like that.
Thompson: This man has inside knowledge of the child jockey racket. Working in the UAE for a foreign government, he agreed to speak, on condition of anonymity.
Mr A: These people are neither Muslims nor human. They are just some cruel creatures who have no hearts other than their own interests.
Thompson: Those interests are showcased at the trophy room of the UAE’s Camel Racing Federation. Here, the race winning prowess of the UAE’s sheikhs is honoured in gold but the camel jockey’s don’t get a mention. In 1993 the UAE banned the employment of jockeys below the age of fifteen. A ban that was reinforced last September, with higher penalties.
Now, if you believe the Federation’s head, Khalsan Khamees, child camel jockey’s don’t even exist.
Khamees: Absolutely impossible, absolutely impossible, absolutely impossible to find a jockey who is below 15 years of age and it will never, never happen. Law enforcers are strictly putting this rule into practice and you will see it for yourself when you visit the camel racing venue tomorrow. And tomorrow you may ask anyone you wish to ask about this.
Thompson: It was a challenge Khalsan Khamees might wish he hadn’t made. The next morning a UAE government minder took us to film a race. But through a bungled arrangement we were taken to a race we were not meant to see. There were young boys everywhere, some barely beyond toddler age. Seemingly surprised by our presence, the police suddenly began removing the younger kids from the crowd of jockeys as they edged towards the race starting line. They demanded we hand over our pictures of children.
Thompson: I am not being searched. I am sorry we are here as official guests are we not?
Minder: Yes, I know as I told you.
Policeman: Follow the process!
Minder: I told you earlier, try to avoid filming kids.
Thompson: Well, you didn’t tell us that actually. We said we were going to come and film a race.
Minder: Yes, okay, but you are concentrating maybe on something which the UAE is trying to fight.
Man: People are taking pictures here and there, even internal areas…I have told you to take pictures outside not in the compound… Look! They are taking pictures of the bus.
Minder: Don’t go on the bus. ….because these guys are younger than the age of what we said earlier in our interview yesterday and they are all under the age of 15. They are not allowed to go and race.
Thompson: So why can’t we film them?
Minder: Well, because, you know they don’t want you to film them, that’s all!
Thompson: While they were strict with us there is scant evidence of official action against those forcing children to race camels. In this strange wonderland it’s the animals who are treated like spoilt kids. Worth up to one million dollars on the market, prize camels are taken for daily dips in their own custom-built swimming pools. Every need is catered for, including the best medical care that money can buy. It’s a standard of care the camel kids will never know.
Mr A: Even if a camel jockey lost a match he is punished.
Thompson: How is he punished?
Mr. A: He is deprived of his salary. He is deprived of his food. He is whipped. He is also abused physically, mentally.
Thompson: The camel kids live out here in the desert. Days and nights are spent not in the care of parents but under the guard of strange men. With a hidden camera, we visited one of their ramshackle huts, where two Pakistani boys spent the few hours between races sleeping on the floor. These camel racing professionals are aged just five and seven.
Thompson: So just confirming…he is from Pakistan? …And you are from Pakistan also… Brothers…And both are camel jockeys. And he is aged 5 and he is aged 7 years old (and they have been here for 2 years?
K1: Yes.
Thompson: And they race 4 times a week?
K2: 4 times a week.
Thompson: For 400 dirhams for 1 month? Can he show me how he rides? That’s about 200 dollars: a wage which goes to the adults who brought Sammy here. Sometimes they are parents but often they are imposters, traffickers profiting from this kindergarten aged child’s race winning skills. It’s from a world like this that young Jakir has come. He may be playing now, but until a few weeks ago, camel racing was the only childhood he had ever known. He thinks his age is eight, but he doesn’t know for sure. He remembers only that he was stolen from Bangladesh and smuggled to the UAE at an age when he couldn’t even dress himself. He was two.
Jakir: I don’t know. I was small when I was stolen. I did not know anything when I was small. I did not know how to ride on camels, I did not know any work. When I grew bigger I was made to work. That master beat me like a dog
Thompson: Do you ever feel sad about your life?
Jakir: I feel dead with all the work. My whole body is covered with sweat and feels weak.
Thompson: Jakir’s camel racing days are now over. He was taken into police custody when a man posing as his father was arrested with a fake passport. Now, after six years as a camel jockey, Jakir is going home.
Thompson: What’s that say?
Jakir: Jakir
Thompson: It may be among the world’s poorest nations but Bangladesh is indisputably rich in one resource -- human beings. But the most densely populated country on earth cannot provide anything like enough employment opportunities. So here it is not difficult to find parents willing to gamble their children on thin promises of overseas work. But some parents are never even given that choice -- their children are simply stolen from a country where it can be impossible to prove that they ever existed at all. We arrived in the Bangladesh capital Dhaka just days before Jakir was due to return, but plans to film his arrival were foiled by an anxious government. Thirty percent of Bangladesh’s wealth comes from the wages of its expatriate workers in countries like the UAE – income it does not want to jeopardise by pushing too hard on the camel jockey issue.
Eventually, Bangladesh’s State Minister for Expatriate’s Welfare and Overseas Employment did arrange for us to meet with Jakir as long he could join the brief picture opportunity. While Jakir struggled to remember the city he left six years ago, the Minister struggled to defend the country which is one of the largest employers of Bangladeshi labour. We have been to the UAE and we have seen these boys working as camel jockeys, some younger than him. What do you say to that? They are still working as camel jockeys.
Minister: We have not seen. We have not seen frankly speaking.
Thompson: But we have seen it.
Minister: Anyway, if it is younger than that the law is passed now and I believe in the future it will be prevented and I believe that this will be implemented very strictly.
Thompson: You have confidence in the government?
Minister: I have confidence, because the law has been passed by their own. That is why they want to implement it definitely.
Thompson: Would it concern you if the law wasn’t being enforced?
Minister: Definitely it will concern us, but I am sure it will be implemented properly.
Thompson: Jakir meanwhile is bound for this shelter for trafficked boys.
Boy: Do you want to come along with us?
Thompson: These boys are rehearsing a play depicting how they were lured into the camel jockey trade.
Boy : Hello, boss.
Boss: Yes?
Boy: We have found two chicklings. Very young, absolutely superb.
Boss: Well done! Hey, listen all arrangements have been made. Fly them out by tomorrow evening. Understand?
Boy: Yes, boss.
Boss: Hey, see there is no mess up.
Boy: Yes, boss.
Boss: I don’t like to be involved in mess ups.
Thompson: Every former camel jockey here has some experience of injury or abuse. Mamon was five when he was trafficked to the UAE . It was an injury that ended his camel jockey days.
Mamon: I was sitting on a camel -- it was very wicked. When the camel runs, there is a rope dangling in front . As soon as the camel was slapped to make it run the rope swung backwards and my leg got caught in it, and it was cut.
Thompson: The true tragedy of the camel jockey racket is found in Bangladesh’s vast and waterlogged countryside.
Out here poverty stricken families are perfect prey for traffickers. Ali Islam has returned home to his parents after spending years in the UAE riding camels -- a bite from one of them permanently disfigured him. His other scars aren’t so visible.
Latif: I put him in a school after his return but he refused to go there or even to the madrassa. He only wants to play with his friends. He won’t even eat properly, just play.
Thompson: At Rajashahi on Bangladesh’s border with India UNICEF and local government agencies are registering births -- part of a national plan of action which is perhaps Bangladesh’s best hope of guarding against the camel jockey trade. Five years ago almost no births in Bangladesh were registered, allowing children to disappear without any official trace. Now in some parts of Bangladesh up to 70 percent of new births are recorded.
Health Volunteer: The card acts as the right of the child d is proof of that he is a citizen of Bangladesh.
Thompson: It is a beginning but a long way from a solution. Tens of millions of Bangladeshi children remain vulnerable to what is effectively a slave trade.
Mr A: If there is no demand there will be no supply. Simple as that. So pressure should be put on these Gulf governments not to use children as camel jockeys and not only on paper or as promises -- they should work in close cooperation with international organisations.
Thompson: But the racing continues and as long as self interest is driving this game a different future for these children is not worth betting on.