DOHA, 25 May 2005 — Qatar will slap jail sentences of between three and 10 years on anyone using child jockeys in camel races popular throughout the Gulf, newspapers reported yesterday.
“Crown Prince Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani issued a law banning the employment, training and use of children in camel races,” the state news agency QNA said.
The decree said violators of a ban on the use of under-18s in the sport will also risk fines of between 50,000 and 200,000 riyals ($13,800 and $55,000).
The Qatari government in December banned the use of children in camel races and said it would instead use robots as jockeys.
Gulf Arab states are trying to bring order to the national sport in the face of protests over the trafficking of young children from developing countries, mostly in Asia, as jockeys.
Human rights groups have raised the alarm over the exploitation of children by traffickers who pay impoverished parents a paltry sum or simply kidnap their victims.
The children, mostly from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, are then smuggled into the Gulf states.
They are often starved by employers to keep them light and maximize their racing potential. Mounting camels three times their height, the children — some as young as six — face the risk of being thrown off and trampled.
Nearby United Arab Emirates also plans to introduce robots and has tightened laws to stop the use of boys under 16 or weighing less than 45 kg (99 lb) in the camel races. On May 8, the UAE signed an agreement with the United Nations Children’s Fund to rehabilitate the child jockeys after banning their use.
