Camel Jockeys in the Middle East

It is a fact that any animal can travel faster with a small rider than with a large one. Horse and camel jockeys are chosen for their size, but it would take a little effort to find small adults to ride the camels. Around the Middle East, rather than make this effort, child slaves are used as jockeys on the camels. It is easier for the oil rich gulf countries to continue, as they have done for hundreds of years, to buy children from the poorer countries across the gulf in the Indian subcontinent and to force them to work as camel jockeys.

Consensus Politics

Many Arab governments rule through a consensus of several powerful families. There is some degree of concern about the children who work as camel jockeys. There is also a strong wish not to upset colleagues who enjoy watching the sport.

No holiday riding camels

The work of a camel jockey is no holiday. Away from their parents, in a foreign country with no legal status, the children have no one to protect them. They must exercise the camels seven days a week in heat that even the local people shelter from. There is no choice about whether to work on the camels or not. A beating or two and a couple of days without food convinces them all. There is nowhere to run to. Many of the children are told a story about being unwanted and being sold by their parents into slavery, just in case they were considering trying to get home. Before the camel races the children go without food, not as a punishment, but to keep their weight down so the camels will run faster. The children receive no schooling and grow up without even knowing the country of their birth.

Disposable assets

Once the children grow too large to be of any use as camel jockeys a lucky few will be employed by the camel stables, a few more will be able to get work by employers who know and can exploit their situation. However, if they ever step out of line in the future they risk being arrested as illegal immigrants. Throughout the Middle East the punishment for being an illegal immigrant is a fine and the punishment for not paying a fine is prison. Through no fault of his own, a camel jockey could end his days in the inhumane confines of an Arab prison. Occasionally an effort has been made to repatriate children once they outgrow their usefulness, but, as no records are kept about where the children came from, this merely dumps the children into the slums of a nearby country.

You camel jockey!

The insult "camel jockey" has worked its way into the languages of the Middle East to mean someone with little education. Many of the people who use this term are ignorant of the true origin of the term and often those that understand prefer to keep quiet rather than risk upsetting the wealthy people who run the traditional sport of camel racing.