Twenty-two Pakistani boys has been taken to the United Arab Emirates to work as camel jockeys returned home yesterday.
Clad in dirty clothes and too shy to say more than their names, the children, aged between three and 15, flew/ flied in from Dubai after embassy officials had tracked them to the UAE.
Authorities in Pakistan were yesterday trying to trace their parents.
South Asian boys, mostly from Pakistan, are illegally trafficked to the Gulf to take part in the sport. They are favoured as riders as they are light, they can be seriously injuried if they fall.
Rights groups say the boys are kept in prison-like conditions where they are half-starved to keep them light so the camels can run faster. The children race at speeds of up to 30mph.
A government official, Faiza Asghar, said the boys who returned home yesterday would be kept at a child protection centre in Lahore. "Right now we do not know anything about their families, but we will try our best to trace them," she said.
The provincial chief, Chaudhry Pervez Elahi, promised to help the boys' rehabilitation and give them free education.
He said more than 1,700 Pakistani boys were working as camel riders in the Middle East.
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