Kidnaped Camel Jockeys Head Home : Bangladesh: Smugglers have captured thousands of boys as young as 5 and sold them in the Middle East for desert racing.

DHAKA, Bangladesh —  Smugglers are kidnaping thousands of boys as young as 5 from Bangladesh and selling them in the Middle East as camel jockeys.

Police say Bangladeshi boys make up a high proportion of the jockeys used in camel racing, along with boys from Sri Lanka, Pakistan and other poor countries. One jockey is sold for up to $1,250 or more.

“We don’t have any statistics. But I suppose they will be thousands,” one police officer said. “Most of them may have been lost forever.”

Impoverished Bangladesh has been a popular target of human traffickers who lure children and women away on promises of jobs.

The women are sold into brothels in India, Pakistan and the Middle East, at prices up to $2,500. The children used to become members of crime gangs, but now tend to be shipped to the Middle East as camel jockeys.

The Bangladesh Human Rights Assn. says up to 5,000 boys are smuggled out every year. Only a few, like 11-year-old Mohammad Sohail, come back.

“Being a jockey is a painful task,” said Sohail who returned to his home in the suburbs of Dhaka late last year.

“Sometimes I fainted on the camel’s back. It was so hot and I was scared to death, but they tied me so tight that I never fell down,” he said in an interview.

His kidnaper, who was known to the family, brought the boy back after three years. Sohail’s family would not disclose the kidnaper’s name for fear of reprisals.

The boy’s mother said they had received no money over the years, although Sohail said he was paid handsomely and received awards as a champion jockey in Dubai.

He now works at a garment factory in his neighborhood. “His life has been ruined,” his mother said, weeping.

Seven other kidnaped boys, between age 5 and 8, came back to Bangladesh in April, several months after they were arrested by Indian police while waiting for their journey to the Middle East.

They were the third group to return since September after a chorus of protests from newspapers and human rights groups over the plight of the jockeys.

On their return, they were given shelter at a government-run Vagrants Home at Dhaka’s Mirpur district, but officials there said it could take months to locate their families.

“I want to go home. I want to see my parents,” said 5-year-old Shafiq.

The rescued boys said the traffickers took them to Calcutta,where they were told they would become camel jockeys and receive a monthly salary of $125.

“I told him (the kidnaper) I don’t want the job,” said 7-year-old Mohammad Reaz, who told reporters he was stolen from a relative’s house in Dhaka.

“Then he forced me into a vehicle and sped away. When I regained consciousness, I saw myself with some other boys in a dark room.”

Shafiq said there were about 70 other boys, mostly Indians, held with them at a hotel in Calcutta.

A United Arab Emirates court in July, 1992, sentenced two Bangladeshi camel jockeys, ages 10 and 8, to two months in a correction center after a 6-year-old boy who worked on a camel farm was beaten to death.

Camel owners sometimes pay the parents of camel jockeys up to $160 per month, one United Arab Emirates security official said. Others are orphans and live on camel farms, he said.

New regulations in the United Arab Emirates introduced in January prohibit the use of children as camel jockeys from the start of the next camel racing season in September, but specify no age.

The regulations, which officials say should ensure that young boys are not employed, require camel jockeys to weigh not less than 99 pounds and to undergo medical tests to ensure they are fit to ride camels.

Previous regulations set the weight limit at 55 pounds.