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Burney lauds UAE for laws against child trafficking

DUBAI - Child trafficking is the worst of the crimes the Third World countries are facing at present, said Pakistani Human Rights Activist and Advocate Ansar Burney.

Speaking to Khaleej Times during his recent visit to the UAE, Mr Burney said, “Children are trafficked from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and several countries in Africa.

Mr Burney’s Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International (ABWTI) has successfully traced out more than 82,000 children from around the world through his ‘Bureau of Missing and Kidnapped Persons’ and delivered them safely to their families.

“I have also contacted the former prime minister of Pakistan, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and requested him to help ABWTI in bringing such children back to Pakistan,” he said.

Outlining the reasons behind the ill-practice of child trafficking, Mr Burney said, “In Pakistan, parents of such children are either duped by unscrupulous agents who claim to ‘adopt’ them, or in many cases, parents sell off their children for money.”

“We want to tackle the issue at its root. Corruption and poverty have led the poor people of the Third World countries to sell their offspring, which is a very sad scenario,” he said.

Praising the UAE government’s fight against child trafficking and the strong laws banning child camel jockeys, Mr Burney informed that the first UAE law against children riding camels was passed in 1980. The law was later revised in 1992 and then in 2002.

“The law even stipulates that the children under 16 years and lighter than 45 kilogrammes will not race camels because it is so dangerous. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has also called for the minimum age for camel jockeys to be 18 years,” he said.

Due to such stringent laws, in 2002, the ABWTI rescued two brothers, aged eight and 10. The children were flown back to Pakistan on November 21, 2002.

Mr Burney suggested that instead of using children as jockeys, people from China, Hong Kong or other Far Eastern countries should be used as they are suitable for the job because of their small stature.

David Higgs, Elizabeth Thomson and Liaqat Hussain Kiyani, advocates from the UK, are also accompanying Mr Burney on this visit.