23 April, 2008

$8,927,000 to go

As far as I can find out from news reports on the subject, the first compensation to child camel jockeys repatriated to their home countries from the U.A.E. has just been finalised.

73 cases have received approval from the U.A.E. Interior Ministry to receive $1000 each. The money, called a "rehabilitation fund", will be put into a Punjab Bank trust account. The Rs600 ($15) interest per month will be sent to the parents with the proviso that their child (the former child jockey) is "regularly" sent to school.

Back in 2006, a BBC report stated that the U.A.E. government would give $9,000,000 to approx. 1,000 former child jockeys who had been repatriated to
Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sudan and Mauritania. Working in co-operation with UNICEF, the money would "ensure they receive the salaries owed to them and compensation for losing their income. It will also go towards education."

By my calculations, that means that each child should receive approx. $9000. There appears to be an anomaly between what was promised and what's been delivered.

More info sites, although I can't vouch that all of them can be accessed by everyone in the U.A.E.:
~ Commission on Human Rights Report on Anti-Slavery.org
~ "UAE: Talks on compensation for child camel jockeys" (held at Emirates Towers in June 2007) on Child Rights Information Network.com
~ Dubai Government's Dubaicameljockeys.org website
~ Camel jockeys return home on UNICEF.org

What's UNICEF's role in this? The organisation seems to have played no part in the recent allocation of the funds, nor in the June 2007 meeting as the report states:
Each Board may designate one or more NGOs or similar entities like UNICEF or the Red Crescent Society, chosen for their expertise in working with children formerly involved in camel racing. These NGOs/entities will help publicise the Claim Facility and provide legal and other assistance to children who are considering or have filed claims.

It appears that UNICEF has been removed from the insider loop - although, if not legally, then morally and ethically they must uphold their side of the agreement between them and the U.A.E. to ensure that the children are properly cared for and that
the promises of adequate compensation and education are being upheld.

Also, in a brilliant piece of deduction, Dubai Police has stated that there is no organised trafficking in human beings in the U.A.E. because "no U.A.E. National has been involved
in any kind of human trafficking case till date."

According to
Major General Khamis Matar Al Mazina, deputy commander general of Dubai Police, this "proves that our country is free from such illegal practice."

Others would say otherwise, and if this lawsuit is ever brought to trial and the defendants proven guilty, the muppets in Dubai Police may have to rethink their beliefs.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Now lets watch how long it takes for this blog to be blocked :)

nzm said...

bb: this subject has been covered before on this blog and numerous other websites as you'll see by the selection of links that I've included in the post.

However, Blog Mods: if you deem this post to be detrimental to the continued online presence of the UAECB within the U.A.E., I'll gladly remove it, post it on my blog and link from here.

Let me know - you have my email address!

Alexander said...

It's a great post. Be interested to see if any 'conventional' media take up the points you've raised...

Anonymous said...

It is an interesting post an thoroughly documented. I was not concerned with the subject but with the tone of the last sentence.

" the muppets in Dubai Police ".

Not that I don't agree with the statement though. :)

nzm said...

bb: I use muppet as a term of endearment! ;-)

Alexander: Thank you. Do you think that any conventional media has the cojones to take it up - at the risk of having them cut off? Maybe the new AD National publication south of the border may have a go, seeing as they have a penchant for digging at DXB goings-on!

Jayne said...

Great post hon & 'muppet' is a most appropriate word!

Lirun said...

very interesting.. any word from the embassies of the countries of origin of these kids?

Keef said...

Dubai cops = 'muppets'? You betcha. The logic employed by that spokesman deserves the tag. Actually, NZM, you were way too generous.

Keef said...

What's this about?

UAE community blog View Blog
3,129 Posts, last published on Apr 23, 2008

This blog has been locked due to possible Blogger Terms of Service violations. You may not publish new posts until your blog is reviewed and unlocked.

This blog will be deleted within 20 days unless you request a review.

rosh said...

Not sure Keefie: I received similar message - and clicked on the "Request A Review" icon, lest, the blog get deleted......

nzm said...

The Blogger spam auto-robots have identified it as a spam blog!

Got this message after clicking for review:
Your blog is locked

Blogger's spam-prevention robots have detected that your blog has characteristics of a spam blog.

Since you're an actual person reading this, your blog is probably not a spam blog. Automated spam detection is inherently fuzzy, and we sincerely apologize for this false positive.

We received your unlock request on April 24, 2008. On behalf of the robots, we apologize for locking your non-spam blog.

Please be patient while we take a look at your blog and verify that it is not spam.


What's a SPAM blog?

Should be unblocked for posting soon.

samuraisam said...

sam@Didn't realize people were discussing the lock on two different topics; I've explained it on this thread earlier today;

for the benefit of users who're reading the top-topic here is a paste:

Secondly, this is an automated system whereby google has somehow detected this as a spam blog (most probably due to the fact we have several hundred links on the front page)-- give it some time and if all goes well we'll be able to post normally again.

This has happened before and will probably happen again-- this is google's webspace and a few days of inconvenience a year are a small price to pay for a fast, free blogging platform that unfortunately doesn't let me ban idiots like anonymous american.

Straight from google's email:
"We find spam by using an automated classifier. Automatic spam detection is inherently fuzzy, and occasionally a blog like yours is flagged incorrectly. We sincerely apologize for this error."

Anonymous said...

No new posts in 4 days, does that mean you guys are still blocked by google or just a lack of inspiration?

cheers

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