Boys, as young as four years old, 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 sent a photographer to the UAE in 2004, to investigate whether children were still being used as camel jockeys, following government announcements that new regulations were being enforced.

Photographic evidence proves that using children as camel jockeys is commonplace in Dubai and other Emirates.

In July 2002, the UAE Government announced that using children under-16 and lighter than 45 kilogrammes to race camels would be banned from 1 September 2002 and offenders punished. From what Anti-Slavery International saw in January 2004, and evidence from organisations in the countries from which children are taken, the regulations against this abuse are still not being implemented.

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.

The photographer also went to Bangladesh, a country from which children are trafficked, and met boys who worked as camel jockeys after 1 September 2002.

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. In June 2003, the US Trafficking in Persons Report commended its efforts against trafficking, including child camel jockeys, by 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 under existing laws", Mary Cunneen Director of Anti-Slavery International says.