DUBAI, Dec 17: The United Arab Emirates said on Sunday that it had set aside more than eight million dollars under an accord with Unicef for rehabilitation of children used as camel jockeys.

“The UAE government has allocated 30 million dirhams (8.3 million dollars) to assure that all underage jockeys who were employed in the UAE receive salaries and severance compensation,” said an official statement.

It said that the funds would be used “for health care, education and other services as appropriate through partners in their home communities” over a two-year period to allow the reintegration of children into their family and society.

More than 1,000 underage camel jockeys have been repatriated since an accord was signed with Unicef in May 2005 and extended to May 2009, according to the statement.

The accord banned the use of children under 16 or weighing less than 45 kilograms (100 pounds) for camel racing, a national sport in the UAE.

Most cases involve children from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. The UAE now plans to use robots to race camels rather than children.

In September, a civil lawsuit wasfiled in a US court in Florida alleging the ruler of Dubai, a member of the UAE federation, and his brother enslaved some 30,000 children over the past three decades for use as camel jockeys.

The suit named Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum and his brother, Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid al-Maktoum, and others.

They were charged with “the alleged abduction and human trafficking of thousands of young boys” from countries like Bangladesh, Sudan and southern Asia, according to a US law firm.

—AFP