ISLAMABAD, July 8: Police have rescued five children aged between three and seven who were allegedly being smuggled to Dubai for use as camel jockeys, the FIA said on Monday.

A woman with three boys and two girls, whom she claimed were her children, was stopped at the Islamabad’s international airport late Sunday, FIA’s Chief Airport Officer Sadar Azim said.

He said the woman and the children posed as a family, but a closer look at the “mother’s” passport showed that the names of the children had been included fraudulently.

Mr Azim said police believed the woman was taking the children to Dubai to be used in the national sport of the United Arab Emirates.

“We have arrested the woman, her husband and two agents who organized the operation,” he told AFP. “We are trying to make more arrests of people who helped them to alter the passport.”

The use of child jockeys and jockeys weighing less than 45 kilograms has been banned in the UAE since January 1993, but the law is violated frequently.

Most of the jockeys in the Emirates come from the subcontinent.

“This is the first time we are seeing children of such a young age being smuggled to be used as camel riders,” Mr Azim said.

“The oldest boy could not be more than seven years,” he said, adding that the youngest child rescued was aged three.

The screams of terrified children tied to the backs of camels were thought to make the beasts run faster, Mr Azim said.

Not all children survive the trauma.