A Worthy Cause

** Thanks to Lost budgie for the story, this stuff is horrific and puts the problems that we think we have into perpective.

The Pakistan's widely known as human rights activist Ansar Burney, Chairman; Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International has announced on Sunday that Fifty more rescued underage former child camel jockeys from UAE will arrive back home next week.

The Pakistani prominent human rights activist Ansar Burney, a person because of whom the UAE, Qatar and Oman has banned use of underage children as Jockeys, has said that dozens of underage Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Sudanese children have already been rescued in UAE and they are at present in the Children center at Abu Dhabi where they are waiting for the traveling documents and other necessary arrangements to go back to their respective countries.

He said dozens of such Pakistani children will arrive back home next week and will be rehabilitated soon.

He said all the 22 children came back from UAE last month, are those who were already rescued in UAE and those who were waiting for their traveling documents in the Abu Dhabi Center.

"We have more than 100 rescued underage children in Abu Dhabi Child care Center belongs from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Oman and some of the African countries and arrangements are being finalized to send them back to their respective countries as early as possible". Ansar Burney said.

The Great efforts of Pakistan’s renowned human and civil rights activist, Ansar Burney, Advocate were became fruitful when after UAE the Qatar government also announced banned use of underage children to work as child camel jockeys in Qatar. The Crown Prince of Qatar in Doha announced severe punishments on use of underage children as camel jockeys. Oman has also announced to ban child slavery from September this month.

Because Ansar Burney’s great efforts to save these children from slave labour and there release from private jails in Middle Eastern and Arab Countries the United States Department of State in it's annual 'Trafficking in Persons' Report issued on 3rd of June 05, has highly applauded the great efforts of Mr Burney, in the field of human rights.

The State Department also declared the name of Ansar Burney from Pakistan as International Hero.

The United States report with a caption 'HEROES ACTING TO END MODERN-DAY SLAVERY' with a picture of Mr Burney, lauded his great services for human rights in Pakistan as well as internationally and declared him as International HERO.

Ansar Burney, the pioneer in this field is the one and only who brought world attention towards the plight of these children and their use as camel jockeys and slave labourers in private jails.

The human rights history has already been changed in UAE, when a new law banning the use of underage children came into force in March this year that was earlier assured by the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and the Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to Mr Ansar Burney and Mrs Shaheen Burney, Chairman and Vice Chairperson of the Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International, in October last year

The great credit to stop this menace goes to Pakistan's human rights activist, Ansar Burney, Advocate who played a more than great role to stop the use of underage children on slave labour from Middle Eastern countries.

The Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International had been rigorously working for the rescue and rehabilitation of these children long before the government took the recent steps. In the last few years the Trust managed to rescue hundreds of such children from the slave labour and rehabilitated them in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Yemen, India, Sudan, Ethiopia and other parts of the world.

"Children as young as two and a half years are used and abused by these people with no regret of their actions or any fear of god. It is a gruesome idea that torturing children and making them disabled at such a young age is considered an enjoyable sport!" Ansar Burney stated.

It may be recalled here that after the restrictions from UAE Mr Burney visited Doha, Qatar where he met with Her Highness Dr Sheikha Ghalia bint Mohammed Al Thani, who heads a high-level committee set up by Amir of Qatar, to combat human trafficking and Chairperson of the Childhood Committee at the Supreme Council for Family Affairs (SCFA). Mr Burney also met other high officials and some foreign missions and discussed in length with them to bane the use of underage children working on slave labour as child camel jockeys in the region and living at private jails.

Later the Qatar government also banned the use of underage children as jockeys.

During his recent visits of Middle Eastern countries Ansar Burney also visited Oman. In Muscat again Mr Burney met the officials and discussed the human rights issue of Child Camel Jockeys, with the Authorities.

According to Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International, thousands of underage children as much as two and a half to seven years old are living in Private Jails and working on slave labour as ‘Child Camel Jockeys’ in the Middle East and other Arab region. They work on slave labour from 17 to 18 hours every day and living alike as in hell.

On the appeal of widely known as human rights ‘Saint’ Ansar Burney, the United Arab Emirates Leadership has already abolished such inhuman practice of use of underage children on 31st of March 05, from the UAE.

Last year in his efforts Mr Ansar Burney, member of the American Bar Association (USA), International Bar Association (UK) and Karachi Bar Association (Pakistan), also visited the Camel race tracks in UAE, Qatar and Muscat, rescued hundreds of kidnapped Pakistani, Bangladeshi and underage children of other nationals to send them back to their respective countries.

Ansar Burney said that these innocent children are brought to the Middle Eastern and Arab countries from poor third world countries, where they are either sold deliberately by their parents to the traffickers in order to use the money to support the rest of their family, or support their own drug or drink habits; while others are kidnapped and brought to these countries by the smuggler agents.

The hectic efforts of Ansar Burney, has changed the history in Middle East as after UAE the Qatar has also banned the use of underage children as jockeys.

It is believed that there could be as many as 35,000 to 40,000 innocent children working in this form of slave labour, whose ages range from one and a half year old to seven years, mostly from Asian countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, Yemen and Sudan working in the most miserable circumstances in Arab countries.

These children, living wretched lives are abused and tortured daily. They live and sleep in hot, crowded huts made from corrugated irons sheets, without electricity in the high desert temperatures of above 52 degrees centigrade. Years of abuse has led these children to have their upper legs flesh rubbed away, their bones and body structures being damaged and their sexual organs destroyed.

The food they are given in the camps is dirty and unhygienic, worse than what is fed to the racing camels. They are forced to train on the camels two or three times a day in the boiling hot temperatures of the desert, after which they have to serve their masters, do what ever chores they are given and are sexually abused by the men running the camps.

During training and in races, these children, mostly boys but also some girls, often fall down and are badly injured or crushed to death. Because the use of underage camel jockeys is illegal, they are never taken to hospital and receive no medical treatment. If they die, their bodies are buried out in the desert in unmarked graves.

The children are fastened to camels with ropes and Velcro to stop them from falling, but the ride is so rough that many do fall. But all are left with deep scars and cuts due to being tied down and forced to ride the camels. One of the so called ‘advantages’ of using children as jockeys is that their terrified painful cries make the camels run even faster.

The trafficking of children for use as camel jockeys is strictly prohibited by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and by ILO Conventions 29, 138 and 182 - all of which have been ratified by the UAE, yet all this has been going on for many years. Ansar Burney said.

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