KARACHI, Feb 21: A nine-year-old child, Sarfaraz, who had been sent to the United Arab Emirates several years ago to make him play a camel jockey, was brought back home aboard the PIA flight No. PK 258 on Monday morning.
The young jockey, who had had been used as 'camel-kid' for about half of his age, does not remember the name of his mother. He is not also sure about the number of his brothers and sisters as he was so young when sent to the UAE. He cannot recall that who had sent him abroad and who had taken him to the UAE.
Taking to Dawn at the office of the Overseas Pakistanis' Foundation (OPF) on Monday, Sarfaraz stated that his father's name as Haji Mohammad, and said that all he knew was that he had three brothers -- Ishtiaq Ahmad, Murshad Ahmad and Irshad Ahmad.
However, the passport he carries and the out-pass he was issued as temporary passport by the Pakistan embassy in the UAE capital, Abu Dhabi, shows his father's name as Mohammad Karamdin.
Sarfaraz says that his father had visited him four or five times at the stable of Sheikh Awais where he lived with a few other Sudani and Baloch children, the fellow camel-kids. His father had also served a six-month jail in Karachi prison, according to the boy.
Narrating his ordeal, he said many a times he had fallen down during the camel race and got his arms broken in at least two such incidents. "Such incidents in the race are very common," he said. The address entered in his passport is of Kurd village, Rajanpur, which falls in the jurisdiction of Abadpur police station, Rahimyar Khan district.
"I was so scared and cried vehemently when first taken near a camel, but after some time assimilated into the situation," he recalled, and added that after being trained, he became a good rider and started taking part in the races. The sheikh would award him, like other camel-kids, a cash prize on winning a race, he stated.
Mushtaq Ahmad of the OPF said that someone had taken the boy to the Pakistani embassy in Abu Dhabi probably to get a new passport for Sarfaraz or seek extension in the old one.
However, the embassy staff, suspecting that the boy might be a camel-kid, subjected the boy to cross-questioning and when they established that he was a camel-kid, they took him in their custody. After completing all formalities, the boy was repatriated to Pakistan, he said.
He said that the child would be kept at the Edhi Home till his parents were located. The issue of camel-kids surfaced about a couple of decades back when sine sheikhs were found searching for children of poor families in southern Punjab, particularly Rahimyar Khan, Rajanpur and Dera Ghazi Khan.
They usually visit the area for their annual safari to hunt internationally protected bird, houbara bustard. It also transpired that the sheikhs had been hiring children aged four-five years for using them as camel jockeys in the UAE.
Poor parents maintaining large families but inadequate income, would agree to send their sons to the UAE against a handsome amount, although they knew very well how dangerous would the job for their toddlers. The monthly stipend offered by the sheikhs for a child's 'service' usually ranges between UAE Dirhams 500 and 1,000.
A camel-kid has to be fed lesser than his body' requirement so that he could not gain weight as the child is tied with the camel's back. When the camel starts running in the race, the child cries loudly due to scare and this makes the camel run faster. Often a camel-kid falls down and sustains injuries, sometimes fatal.
After strong protest by rights bodies, the UAE government imposed a ban on hiring minors as jockeys and prescribed the minimum age and weight for a person hired for the job. Violation of the ban and rules is still resorted to by some unscrupulous people.
The rights organizations have been urging the concerned governments to enforce strict security at airports to check departure of minors hired as camel- kids and appropriate action against the parents who would send their children abroad for the purpose.
