development: Preventing child smuggling —Syed Mohammad Ali

Research reveals that many underage girls continue going to the Gulf States from Pakistan to serve as ‘entertainers’. Agents help the families of these girls obtain fake birth certificates stating they are 20-years-old, when, in fact, they are four to five years younger than that

During the past week, the Supreme Court held a hearing based on a suo motu notice of the problem of child smuggling and has directed the interior ministry to report back within a month why no action has been taken against those responsible. This show of judicial activism was primarily provoked by the phenomenon of child smuggling to the Middle East to supply camel jockeys.

Before offering some comments on what is generally a positive sign of judicial activism concerning a very serious problem, let us contextualise this issue.

According to reports by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and others, the practice of children smuggling from Pakistan can be traced back to 1979. The use of children in camel races became popular because of the lighter weight of children, enabling camels to run faster. Many poor countries in Africa and in our neighbourhood provided a steady supply of children to serve as camel jockeys despite fears of varied child abuses in camel jockey training camps, and the dangers of injury from falling amidst a herd of racing camels.

Under the increasing glare of international admonishment, the UAE finally imposed a strict ban on the use of children in camel racing in 2005. The UAE also signed an agreement with the specialised multilateral development agency UNICEF, to help rehabilitate these children in their home countries. In Pakistan, UNICEF, in turn, collaborated with the Child Protection and Welfare Bureau to help reunite children with their families, and to provide them a small sum of money and enrol them into local schools, or else to find them some sort of employment.

While there are disputes concerning the total number of children sent from Pakistan, in comparison to the more limited number of those who have been rehabilitated, this article cannot speculate on the issue due to a lack of reliable data. However, personally meeting some of these rehabilitated children in southern Punjab’s districts like Rahimyar Khan was certainly an eye-opening experience. Many of the children I spoke to had gone to the UAE when they were below or just above the age of 10. Some had now come back as teenagers, and were having a tough time coping in government schools surrounded by much younger children. The job opportunities lent to them offered measly pays and were not terribly exciting. Some of them thus expressed a desire to go back to the UAE, despite the fact that many of their colleagues had suffered horrible injuries, and they themselves admitted to abuse and neglect during their prior trip.

Moreover, recent pictures in the international press showing the use of child jockeys at a major camel race indicate that the UAE authorities may be becoming lax on implementing the child camel jockey ban, which is not encouraging news, since this may again impel another stream of young children to be sent to become camel jockeys.

Although the Supreme Court has questioned why those involved in child smuggling were not apprehended, it must be realised that not all the children taken to the UAE were being transported by illegal human smugglers. Many parents were evidently complicit in this activity. I met several fathers who had accompanied their young boys, and had worked in the UAE as labourers while their children were being trained to participate in the races. Other parents had sent their children to the UAE with relatives. The point here is not to say that human smugglers are not active in this procedure, but merely to suggest that the greed, ignorance and deprivation of parents have also fuelled this activity.

Similar compulsions are also noted with regards to another even more pervasive human smuggling phenomenon, that of prostitution. In fact, on-ground research reveals that many underage girls continue going to the Gulf States from Pakistan, sponsored by low-budget hotels to serve as ‘entertainers’ catering to the expatriate low-income workforce. While the passports these young girls travel on are legitimate, and the visas are genuine too, ‘agents’ help the families of these girls obtain fake birth certificates stating they are 20-years-old, when, in fact, they are four to five years younger than that.

Even if girls who go to serve as entertainers in shady venues abroad are already involved in prostitution, and are themselves keen to go make more money, the transfer of anyone under the age of 18 for the purpose of economic or sexual exploitation is technically termed child trafficking.

It would thus be wise for our judiciary to go beyond focusing on the niche market for camel jockeys alone, and think about other areas where trafficked children are in demand, including prostitution. It may, in fact, be found that there is a much larger problem domestically, both for prostitution as well as for children being abducted or coerced by the begging mafia.

Recall, for instance, the reported case last year of a child from Lodhran having jumped from a goods train near Samma Satta. This young boy had claimed that there were as many as 30 other children chained in that train and being transported illegally. The police checked some trains but found no more children. They did apprehend the alleged kidnapper of the boy who had escaped, and found a large gang involved in trafficking children to Karachi. Moreover, the police did not rule out the active connivance of railway officials involved in the transportation of these poor children.

Given these complex ground realities, while the Supreme Court’s attention to the use of Pakistani camel jockeys is a good sign, this problem is just the tip of the iceberg of the much larger phenomenon of exploitation.

Thus, while reviewing the report prepared by the interior ministry for the Supreme Court next month, it would be good if the judicial bench were also to raise the issue of what exactly relevant agencies like the FIA are doing to curb the varied forms of child trafficking, not only internationally, but domestically as well. Moreover, one hopes that the cabinet committee’s report will take a similarly comprehensive view of not only the varied forms of smuggling, but also the multiple underlying compulsions and realities of the phenomenon, and how to address them more effectively.

The writer is a researcher. He can be contacted at ali@policy.hu