Pakistan will soon take help from Interpol to arrest its nationals who are residing in various Middle East countries and are involved in human trafficking, especially of children who are used as camel jockeys.
“There are 7,000 to 10,000 Pakistani children who have been taken illegally to various Middle East countries. These children are working as camel jockeys. We would soon take help from the Interpol to arrest members of a number of Pakistani gangs who are operating in the Middle East and are involved in trafficking of Pakistani children to be used as camel jockeys,” said Minister of State for Overseas Pakistanis Senator Tariq Azeem Khan, while speaking at a press conference here on Tuesday.
He said 60 to 70 per cent of the children being used as camel jockeys in the Middle East were Pakistani. A majority of these children belonged to Rahim Yar Khan, southern Punjab and upper Sindh and a few of them were from lower Sindh and Balochistan.
He said there were several Pakistani gangs involved and the law enforcement agencies had made 92 arrests and a number of them belonged to these gangs.
Replying to a question, Mr Tariq said the government of Pakistan had so far gathered no evidence that could prove that some high-profile figures from the Gulf countries, who were invited to Pakistan by landlords and politicians, trafficked children from Rahim Yar Khan in their private aircraft.
He said the UAE government was cooperating with Pakistan in finding and repatriating Pakistani children who were used as camel jockeys.
He said the UAE government had promised 3.5million US dollar that would be spent on the rehabilitation and travel documents of camel jockeys, and added that the amount would be spent by the UAE and Pakistan chapters of the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef).
He said without the help of the UAE Pakistan would not have been able to recover its children.
Mr Tariq said Qatar and the UAE had also started implementing some anti-human trafficking laws and Pakistan was hopeful that these laws would curtail the practice to a great extent.
He said that recently 184 camel jockeys were repatriated from the UAE to the Child Welfare Bureau Punjab where they were being offered food and medicines and other facilities and psychological help so that they could be rehabilitated.
He said the Interior Ministry was also secretly investigating various cases in order to arrest officials of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) involved in child trafficking.
He said no official of the FIA would be spared if found guilty of abetting in human trafficking.
The chief of the Unicef, Pakistan, Umar Abdi, said Pakistan was making a move in the right direction to control child trafficking for camel jockeys.
PHOTO CAPTION
A girl holds a placard which reads 'Save the Muslim family' during a protest by Muslim women in central Jakarta August 11, 2005. Hundreds of women demonstrated over a variety of issues affecting Indonesian women and children, including human trafficking and prostitution and called on the government to do more to protect them. (REUTERS)