On 12 June, the world marks ILO World Day Against Child Labour. One of the fastest growing forms of slavery today is trafficking. According to the UN, 1.2 million children are trafficked each year. Among this number are boys, as young as four years old, who continue to be trafficked to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as camel jockeys despite repeated statements from the Government that this practice has stopped.

Anti-Slavery International, the world's oldest, international human rights organisation, has photographic evidence and first-hand testimony from the children themselves taken in 2004, proving that using children as camel jockeys remains commonplace in Dubai and other Emirates, despite UAE Government announcements that new regulations are being enforced.

In July 2002, the UAE Government announced that using children under-15 and lighter than 45 kilograms to race camels would be banned from 1 September 2002 and offenders punished. From what Anti-Slavery International saw and the evidence from organisations in the countries children are taken from, the abuse is widespread and the UAE Government is failing to take effective and meaningful action to stop it.

Traffickers are abducting or luring young boys away from their families in South Asia and Africa with promises of well-paid work, education and training. In reality they are kept in brutal conditions, deprived of food and water to keep them light and subjected to hazardous work; racing at a speeds of 40-50 kilometres per hour.

Using children as camel jockeys has been illegal in the UAE since 1980 under domestic and international legislation. To the best of our knowledge, no UAE citizen has faced judicial proceedings for this offence.

Despite this, in February 2004, the US State Department Country Report on Human Rights Practices refers to the UAE Government implementing and enforcing the ban. And, in June 2003, the US Trafficking in Persons Report commended the UAE's efforts against trafficking, including child camel jockeys, raising it from Tier 3, reserved for the greatest offenders, to Tier 1, comprising countries whose governments are prohibiting and punishing acts of trafficking.

The Government of the UAE needs to enforce the laws that protect children from this abuse and address the demand that fuels child trafficking. It needs to introduce regular, unannounced inspections to identify, release and rehabilitate any child currently being used as a camel jockey and prosecute anyone responsible for trafficking or employing underage jockeys.