US embassy cable - 05ABUDHABI833

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ABU DHABI 000833 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR G/TIP, INL, DRL, NEA/RA, AND NEA/ARPI 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ELAB, ETRD, PHUM, PREL, TC 
SUBJECT: G/TIP VISIT TO UAE INFORMATIVE BUT DISAPPOINTING 
 
REF: A) ABU DHABI 663 B) ABU DHABI 507 C) ABU DHABI 
 
     353 D) ABU DHABI 296 E) 04 ABU DHABI 4237 
     F) MUSCAT 209 
 
1. (SBU) SUMMARY.  G/TIP Senior Coordinator for Reports Mark 
Taylor visited the UAE February 5-8 to update information for 
the 2005 Trafficking in Persons Report.  High ranking UAEG 
officials assured him of their ongoing commitment to 
combating all forms of human trafficking. (Note: On February 
13, a senior UAEG official suggested to Ambassador that Abu 
Dhabi could impose financial penalties against the 
financially dependent northern emirates if they did not cut 
the use of underage camel jockeys (ref. A). End note.) 
Despite the stated political commitment of Abu Dhabi 
leadership to eliminate the use of underage camel jockeys by 
this summer (refs. A, B, C and D), G/TIP visitor and Post,s 
TIP Officer found that the abuse of underage camel jockeys 
and sex trafficking incidents has persisted since G/TIP,s 
visits in February 2004 and December 2004. 
 
2. (SBU) SUMMARY CONTINUED: G/TIP and Poloff witnessed dozens 
of young, foreign boys being used to train and race camels, 
and hundreds of women, some of whom are likely trafficking 
victims, openly working as prostitutes on the streets and in 
the clubs of Dubai.  A senior officer with the Dubai police 
commented that law enforcement officials UAE-wide have never 
viewed the September 2002 camel jockey ban as legally 
enforceable.  After the visit, UAEG officials hesitantly 
agreed that the ban had not proved enforceable, and described 
this as the principal reason why the UAEG was pressing ahead 
with a federal law to criminalize human trafficking.  They 
stated the law would be passed by April 2005. In a separate 
meeting prior to the visit, Interior Minister Sheikh Saif 
told the Ambassador that the UAEG will implement &big 
changes8 this year (ref. B).  END SUMMARY. 
 
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UAEG OFFICIALS CONVEY ONGOING ANTI-TIP SUPPORT 
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3. (SBU) Amb. Tareq Al Haidan, MFA Assistant U/S for 
Political Affairs, and Col. Nasser Al Noaimi, Office Director 
for the Minister of Interior, offered G/TIP visitor 
assurances of their ongoing commitment to fight human 
trafficking on UAE soil, and stated that the use of young 
foreign children as camel jockeys was declining.  G/TIP and 
Poloff witnessed on three occasions the use of very young 
children, some estimated to be as young as three years old, 
during training sessions and at a race at Nad Al Sheba camel 
racetrack in Dubai.  On one occasion, G/TIP and Poloff were 
refused entry to the racetrack, on the orders of the director 
of the Camel Racing Federation, despite the fact that the 
race was open to the public.  The guard at the entrance was 
aware that G/TIP and Poloff were in a U.S. diplomatic vehicle 
and were attempting to investigate the child camel jockey 
issue.  The guard stated that this factored into the 
director,s decision to bar us from the race, saying that 
&no American diplomats (were) allowed in.8 
 
4. (SBU) G/TIP was also refused entry to the Dubai 
Immigration Detention Center by the deputy director of the 
center, where he wanted to talk to potential sex trafficking 
victims awaiting deportation.  The ostensible reason was a 
lack of prior coordination.  In reality, the refusal came 
despite several requests by the Embassy through proper 
diplomatic channels, and promises by officials from the 
Ministries of Interior and Foreign Affairs that the meeting 
would occur. 
 
5. (SBU) G/TIP was very impressed, however, with the child 
camel jockey shelter and rehabilitation center in Abu Dhabi 
Emirate, and encouraged officials to increase the number of 
boys rescued from farms and sheltered there.  Shelter 
managers stated that the facility can hold up to 400 boys. 
Currently, about 25 boys are housed there.  G/TIP advised a 
Ministry of Interior official to consider implementing one or 
more major steps to show genuine commitment to fighting the 
human trafficking problem, such as passage of the camel 
jockey law, rescuing a large number of trafficking victims 
and prosecuting their traffickers, preferably before the 
March 31 end of the TIP reporting period, and/or allowing the 
International Organization for Migration (IOM) to open an 
office here.  G/TIP also urged MFA and police officials to 
engage with the IOM with the goal of establishing a formal 
IOM anti-TIP program in the UAE.  This would greatly help 
police and immigration officials with the difficult tasks of 
victim identification, interviewing, victim care, and 
repatriation.  G/TIP participated in a teleconference with 
IOM Kuwait,s Chief of Mission, Muhammed Al Nassery, to 
discuss the IOM,s next steps in advancing the IOM/UAE 
relationship. 
 
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DUBAI POLICE ADMIT 2002 BAN HAS NO LEGAL TEETH 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
6. (SBU)  During a meeting at the Dubai police headquarters, 
the Commandant General of the Dubai Police Force, Lt. Gen. 
Dhahi Khalfan Al Tamim, bluntly told G/TIP, CG and Poloff 
that that law enforcement officials in all seven emirates 
have never viewed the September 2002 presidential decree 
banning the use of underage foreign camel jockeys as legally 
enforceable.  (Comment: This statement confirmed the obvious 
) that the ban was not working and that stronger measures 
were necessary.  End comment.)  Al Tamim said that, unless a 
child is injured while racing and hospitalized, or another 
crime is committed and police learn of the offense, law 
enforcement officers have no authority to rescue children 
from racetracks or farms.  Al Tamim mentioned that he had 
tried to meet with the director of the Camel Racing 
Federation to discuss the issue in the past, however, the 
Federation director declined to meet with him.  Al Tamim 
pointed out that not one case had been prosecuted under the 
2002 ban.  Before the visit, Abu Dhabi leadership assured us 
that it was for this reason that the UAEG planned to codify 
the ban into new legislation. 
 
7. (SBU) Al Tamim also stated that, unlike all other emirates 
(particularly emphasizing Abu Dhabi Emirate), Dubai makes no 
efforts to &hide8 its ongoing use of child camel jockeys, 
which he expected would continue until a law forbidding the 
practice is passed. (Note: Several officials, including the 
Minister of Interior Sheikh Saif, have told us in the past 
that the UAEG would codify the ban into legislation that 
would be enacted by April 2005, see refs. B and C.  However, 
during this visit, Sheikh Saif,s media consultant would not 
confirm that timeline, stating instead that the ban would 
become a law &soon8 and would be enforced by the beginning 
of the next camel racing season in Fall 2005. End note.)  Al 
Tamim also alleged that other emirates, particularly Abu 
Dhabi, were moving large numbers of child camel jockeys 
deeper into the desert and to neighboring countries, 
including Oman, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, to &hide8 them 
until public attention on the issue died down.  (Note: This 
statement tracks with allegations made by Pakistani human 
rights activist Ansar Burney over the past few months. 
However, it does not track with Embassy Muscat reporting, 
which reported no evidence of camel jockeys being brought 
from the UAE into Oman at a recent race near the border, see 
ref. F. End note.)  Al Tamim said that Dubai officials 
disagree with this practice, and will continue to address the 
problem overtly.  He recommended that the USG strongly lobby 
Dubai Crown Prince Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum and Abu 
Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan for passage 
and enforcement of the camel jockey law. 
 
8. (SBU) After elaborating on the conflict between Abu Dhabi 
and Dubai emirates on the camel jockey issue, the Minister of 
Interior,s media consultant and assistant to Al Noaimi, 
Issam Azouri, confirmed the validity of Al Tamim,s statement 
that law enforcement officials do not regard the ban as 
legally enforceable.  He also confirmed that the Camel Racing 
Federation and a number of powerful sheikhs were resisting 
federal efforts to end the use of children as camel jockeys. 
However, he pointed out other measures being taken to address 
the issue pending the passage of the new camel jockey law, 
including DNA testing, the iris recognition system, and the 
opening of the new camel jockey shelter.  He avowed that the 
new law would eliminate all future use of foreign children as 
camel jockeys.  (Note: Two key Embassy interlocutors ) 
Yousef Al Otaiba, Special Advisor to the Abu Dhabi Crown 
Prince, and Amb. Abdullah Rashid Al Noaimi, MFA U/S ) have 
identified Dubai Deputy Ruler Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al 
Maktoum as the chief obstacle to change.  End note.) 
 
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SEX TRAFFICKING ISSUE 
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9. (SBU) Dubai police chief Al Tamim stated that, although a 
specific anti-TIP law does not exist, Dubai police and public 
prosecutors do arrest and prosecute human traffickers, citing 
three cases just the previous week.  He said the problem was 
that traffickers often use false names and work through 
legitimate travel agencies to acquire visas for victims, 
which makes it difficult to locate them.  He also said that 
very few victims cooperate with investigators, which makes 
locating their traffickers nearly impossible.  Al Tamim said 
that police are building relationships with source country 
diplomatic missions and law enforcement agencies, and will 
increase efforts to do so.  At the same time, he complained 
that some source country embassies and consulates were not 
helpful to police and were reluctant to assist their own 
citizens.  He opined that the sex trafficking problem seemed 
to be growing, especially among the Chinese population, and 
he wished that source countries would do more to try to stop 
their own citizens from trafficking people here. 
 
10. (SBU) Dr. Mohammed Al Murr, the Director of the Dubai 
Police,s Human Rights Care Department, explained that 
victims, once identified, are housed in hotels rather than 
prisons, and are given financial support and employment 
opportunities while investigations and trials are underway. 
(Note: While victims are afforded care once &identified,8 
as Al Murr states, this identification relies almost 
exclusively on the willingness of a victim to take the 
initiative in filing a complaint against a trafficker.  UAE 
police and immigration authorities have yet to devise and 
adopt an effective method to screen and identify real or 
potential TIP victims at ports of entry or after arrests 
unless they comes forward on their own, which rarely happens. 
 End note.)  Al Murr and Al Tamim confirmed that they do not 
keep records of trafficking cases per se and/or efforts to 
prosecute traffickers, and were not able to state how many 
trafficking victims they assisted in 2004. 
 
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COMMENT 
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11. (SBU) Although G/TIP and Poloff witnessed the persistence 
of the UAE,s human trafficking problem since G/TIP,s two 
visits in 2004, top UAE leaders, including the Crown Princes 
of Abu Dhabi and Dubai, the Minister of Interior, and the MFA 
U/S, have voiced commitment over the past four months to 
eradicate human trafficking.  The October 2004 airing of an 
HBO &Real Sports8 program that highlighted the continued 
exploitation of trafficked foreign children as camel jockeys 
has had a galvanizing effect.  Since the program, UAEG 
officials have been working closely with Pakistani human 
rights activist Ansar Burney, who was prominently featured in 
the show, to help rescue children and combat future use of 
child camel jockeys.  MFA U/S Abdullah Rashid Al Noaimi told 
us on February 13 that the federal government welcomes this 
kind of publicity because it helps increase the pressure on 
other emirates that are resisting taking action. 
 
12. (SBU) In December 2004, the UAEG transferred 
responsibility for addressing the human trafficking issue 
from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Ministry of 
Interior.  This move was beneficial, as the new Interior 
Minister Sheikh Saif, appointed in November, has taken a 
strong interest in addressing trafficking issues.  Interior 
will be responsible for enforcing the camel jockey law, once 
passed, in addition to caring for sex trafficking victims and 
helping Ministry of Justice officials prosecute traffickers. 
However, leadership from all emirates will have to resolve 
their conflicts over the use of young boys as camel jockeys 
to enact and implement new legislation banning the practice. 
SISON