US embassy cable - 05ABUDHABI2833

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 05 ABU DHABI 002833 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR G, G/TIP, INL, DRL, NEA/RA AND NEA/ARPI 
STATE ALSO PASS TO USTR 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/21/2010 
TAGS: PHUM, ELAB, ETRD, TC, Camel Jockeys 
SUBJECT: UAE PROGRESS ON TIP ACTION PLAN 
 
REF: A. STATE 107921 
 
     B. STATE 99833 
     C. STATE 98157 
 
Classified By: AMBASSADOR MICHELE J. SISON, REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D). 
 
1. (C) Summary: Since receiving the TIP report and 
mini-action plan from us on June 1, the UAE Government has 
made steady progress in addressing the suggested steps in the 
plan.  Ministry of Interior police continue to identify and 
rescue underage camel jockeys.  Government social workers 
working side-by-side with UNICEF officials are providing care 
for former camel jockeys in government-run shelters while the 
children await humane repatriation to their home countries. 
The number of repatriations has risen.  The federal Cabinet 
approved June 13 the draft camel jockey law that will equip 
the UAE courts with the enforcement tools necessary to 
prosecute trafficking cases.  The law bans child camel 
jockeys under age 18, in keeping with ILO standards.  The 
Ministry of Interior has closed all camel racing areas and 
has assigned police patrols to the racetracks to enforce the 
ban during this period.  And in Dubai, a new emirate-level 
labor committee has set up a hotline and website for use by 
domestic workers and laborers who want to lodge complaints 
about their employers.  End Summary. 
 
2. (C) In the three weeks since we delivered the TIP report 
and mini-action plan to senior UAEG officials, Embassy Abu 
Dhabi and Consulate General Dubai officers have been 
proactively raising the trafficking in persons issue with a 
broad range of federal and emirate-level official 
interlocutors.  In our discussions, we continually remind our 
contacts that the UAEG has until August 2 to demonstrate that 
it is making "significant efforts" to bring the UAE into 
compliance with the minimum standards for the elimination of 
trafficking in persons, or it will stay at Tier 3.  We have 
also informed the UAEG that G/TIP reports officer Feleke 
Assefa will be returning to the UAE in early July to reassess 
the UAEG's efforts, and that we are interested in having him 
meet with interlocutors who can provide him with evidence of 
action plan progress.  Without exception, senior government 
contacts continue to tell us that the six steps in the action 
plan are "doable" by August 2.  Ibrahim Al Abed, adviser to 
Information Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, told Pol 
Chief June 12 that the UAE leadership understands that the 
USG will reward action, not talk, when it comes to the 
trafficking issue. 
 
3. (U) On June 13, the Cabinet approved a camel jockey decree 
prohibiting the trafficking, employment, and training of 
anyone under the age of 18 in camel activities.  Article 
Three of the law states that any person who violates the law 
will be sentenced to a maximum of three years in prison 
and/or will be fined a minimum of 50,000 Dirhams ($13,500). 
On June 20, the federal Cabinet approved a joint agreement on 
the protection of underage camel jockeys that the Ministry of 
Interior and UNICEF had signed on May 8.  The press reported 
that after the UAEG had announced in mid-March that it would 
ban the use of children under the age of 16 as camel jockeys, 
Stefan Toma, UNICEF's representative for the Gulf area, wrote 
a letter to Deputy Prime Minister and MinState for Foreign 
Affairs Sheikh Hamdan stating, "The UAE has always been one 
of the pioneering states in the Gulf in the field of social 
development.  We at UNICEF are very pleased to see that the 
UAE is taking such an important step on an important regional 
issue of child exploitation."  Sheikh Hamdan had noted that 
violations of the Camel Racing Federation's rules banning the 
use of children as jockeys "have harmed the objectives of the 
sport, and have been in breach of the legal structure on 
which the UAE is based, whether in terms of its domestic 
legislation or in terms of its obligation under the terms of 
various international conventions and agreements." 
 
4. (C) The following is a review of progress made on each of 
the six steps suggested in the mini-action plan to date.  We 
are continuing to encourage additional progress from our UAEG 
interlocutors, particularly on the trafficking of women for 
the purposes of sexual exploitation and the trafficking of 
domestic workers and laborers: 
 
NATIONAL COORDINATOR 
-------------------- 
 
-- The UAEG has yet to appoint a national coordinator to 
oversee implementation of the action plan, although we have 
been assured that this will be announced shortly. 
 
IDENTIFICATION AND PROTECTION FOR CAMEL JOCKEYS 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
-- Immediately after the May 31 grace period expired for 
camel farm owners to register the young boys they employed as 
camel jockeys, the Ministry of Interior's Anti-Infiltration 
Unit began deploying its forces to the camel farms (primarily 
in Abu Dhabi emirate).  In the first few days, the police 
unit was able to locate and "rescue" up to 15 boys per day, 
Anti-Infiltration Unit Director Col. Fadl told Pol Chief. 
 
-- With the assistance of UNICEF social workers and 
statisticians, the Ministry of Interior has also begun the 
task of identifying the boys and providing them with 
protective services at the two camel jockey rehabilitation 
centers in Abu Dhabi.  These services include shelter, food, 
clothing, medical and psychological care, and basic 
education.  Social and medical workers are developing case 
files for each child in an attempt to establish family ties, 
employment and medical histories, and other information that 
will ultimately assist the UAEG repatriate the boys to their 
home countries, and to help the local governments and NGOs in 
those countries to provide reintegration services to the 
boys.  NEA PDAS Cheney will tour the Camel Jockey 
Rehabilitation Center on her upcoming visit, at the 
invitation of the UAEG. 
 
-- Approximately 270 boys who had been working on camel farms 
have been taken into the Ministry of Interior's custody and 
housed in the two camel jockey shelters, according to Lt. 
Col. Najm Sayyar, director of the Ministry of Interior's 
Social Support Center in Abu Dhabi.  The majority are 
Pakistanis.  The remainder are Bangladeshis, Sudanese, 
Mauritanian, and one Eritrean.  Sayyar took issue with the 
TIP report's figures of child camel jockeys, telling "Gulf 
News" June 9 that the UAEG believes the numbers involved are 
"much lower than those cited in the U.S. State Department 
report."  He challenged those who claimed to have other 
figures to reveal their sources so that the Ministry of 
Interior can evaluate their accuracy.  Sayyar promised 
complete documentation on all children involved in camel 
racing in the UAE "soon."  According to a preliminary survey 
by the UAE Ministry of Interior, there are 3,000 child camel 
jockeys in the UAE, of which 2,000 are Pakistanis. 
 
-- The Pakistani Ambassador informed us that 100 boys would 
be repatriated to Lahore at UAEG expense by the end of this 
week, including a batch of 22 on June 21.  "Gulf News" 
reported the return on June 22.  The boys, the majority of 
whom were escorted by a parent or guardian, were met by the 
Child Protection and Welfare Bureau set up by Pakistan's 
Punjab Government, and a UNICEF office representative in 
Pakistan.  Local authorities will trace the parents of the 
children and provide assistance for their rehabilitation, 
including free education in schools at the government's 
expense.  The bureau can accommodate 250 children, said its 
chairperson, Dr. Faiza Asghar, who met in early June with UAE 
Ministry of Interior and UNICEF officials in Abu Dhabi to 
coordinate the repatriation.  "Right now we don't know 
anything about their families, but we will try our best to 
trace them," she told "Gulf News."  Senator Tariq Asim Khan, 
State Minister for Overseas Pakistanis, also met with UAE 
Interior Minister Sheikh Saif in May. 
 
-- The head of the Dubai Human Rights Care Department, Dr. 
Col. Mohammed Al Murr, told Acting Consul General and Poloff 
June 22 that many of the young camel jockeys who are in the 
UAE with their families had started departing voluntarily 
after they had heard about the new camel jockey legislation. 
 
-- The Ministry of Interior has closed all camel racing areas 
and has assigned police patrols to the racetracks to enforce 
the ban during this period.  (Note: The official camel racing 
season is scheduled to resume in October.) 
 
-- The Ministry of Interior's Social Support Center has 
publicized hotline numbers for persons to call who have 
information about kidnapped children brought to the UAE. 
 
INVESTIGATION AND PROSECUTION 
----------------------------- 
 
-- The federal Cabinet's approval last week of the draft 
camel jockey law means that the UAE courts will soon have the 
enforcement tools to commence prosecutions of traffickers. 
Pol Chief met with Ministry of Information advisers Ibrahim 
Al Abed and Peter Hellyer June 12 to make the point that 
having a camel jockey law on the books was important, but 
that enforcing the law and prosecuting cases was going to be 
even more important in the reassessment of the UAE's Tier 3 
status.  We have emphasized to the Ministries of Interior, 
Information, and Foreign Affairs, and to the Minister of 
Supreme Council and GCC Affairs Sheikh Fahim Al Qasimi, that 
the USG will expect to see prosecutions as listed in the TIP 
action plan regardless of nationality. 
 
-- Minister of Labor Al Kaabi told Ambassador June 21 that 
his Ministry currently has 80 labor inspectors, and the 
Ministry has requested funding for additional inspectors to 
follow up on complaints by workers and to conduct random 
checks of labor conditions at work sites. 
 
-- Dubai officers will receive special investigative training 
on how to detect leads and follow up trafficking cases. 
 
MECHANISM FOR IDENTIFICATION AND PROTECTION OF VICTIMS 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
 
-- There has been no progress on developing a mechanism for 
the identification and protection of victims to date.  Acting 
Consul General and Poloff learned June 22 that the Criminal 
Investigation Division's prostitution unit will be 
transferred to the Dubai Police Human Rights Care Department, 
and the unit would add trafficking to its responsibilities. 
 
-- Progress has been made on expanding the availability of 
hotlines for foreign workers to report instances of abuse.  A 
new Dubai labor committee under the supervision of Dubai 
Immigration chief, Brig. General Saeed bin Beleilah, is 
working on setting up a Dubai-wide labor complaints Website 
and hotline, which will include the ability for domestic 
workers and laborers to lodge complaints.  The Website has 
gone live, and in about three weeks the committee will launch 
a $540,000 public awareness campaign to let workers know 
about this mechanism and introduce the Website and hotline. 
The campaign will include television and print ads, as well 
as pamphlets and brochures to be distributed at labor camps 
and elsewhere.  Workers will be able to file a complaint, 
arrange an appointment with the Dubai Labor Committee, and 
track progress online and through a call center (which is 
already up and running inside the Immigration building).  The 
labor committee is hiring three lawyers to represent 
complainants.  Laborers and domestic workers will not have to 
pay any legal fees.  The Website is currently in Arabic and 
English, but there are plans to provide the service in other 
languages. 
 
-- Labor Minister Al Kaabi told Ambassador June 21 that the 
Ministry of Labor had determined that it was more efficient 
to have workers use a Website than a hotline when filing a 
labor complaint because of the large number of Internet cafes 
and other Internet access across the UAE.  Complaints can 
either be sent to alkaabi@mol.gov.ae or through the 
Ministry's Website at www.mol.gov.ae .  Website users wishing 
to provide feedback and suggestions need to enter their names 
and contact information, as well as any comments.  There is 
also a link on the "Procedures Guide" where users can read 
about the steps for filing a complaint.  The user completes 
the complaint form, attaches a copy of his/her identification 
and labor card, and goes to the reception counter at the 
Labor Ministry to submit the papers and obtain an 
appointment.  The person has to be sponsored by the company 
he/she is complaining about.  Complaints go to the 
Administration Department director who forwards the cases to 
legal advisors. 
 
ESTABLISHING SHELTERS; FORMAL PROTECTION 
---------------------------------------- 
 
-- The Ministry of Interior is operating two Camel Jockey 
Rehabilitation Centers in Abu Dhabi emirate.  The first 
opened in December 2004 and is located on the Zayed Military 
City army base.  The second opened in May 2005 and is located 
adjacent to a youth correctional facility in the Abu Dhabi 
suburb of Al Mafraq.  As of June 9, there were 197 boys 
living in the centers.  The UAEG is providing medical and 
mental health care, basic education, food, clothing, and 
sports activities.  The Ministry of Interior's Social Support 
Center social workers, in collaboration with UNICEF workers, 
are compiling files on each of the boys documenting their 
employment history, medical problems, and to the extent 
possible, their family ties.  When the children are 
repatriated to their home countries, their files will follow 
them to ensure follow-up care by local NGOs. 
 
-- The Indian Community Welfare Committee (ICWC) has set up a 
new shelter for destitute Indian women in Dubai and the 
Northern Emirates.  This is the second shelter in Dubai for 
Indian women; the ICWC set up the first one four years ago. 
Both shelters are managed in coordination with the Indian 
consulate, and house runaway maids and women rescued from 
forced prostitution.  Dubai Emirate authorities are 
coordinating and cooperating with the shelters.  For example, 
Dubai Immigration assists by waiving the normal fees levied 
on travelers without passports or who have overstayed their 
visa validity period.  The Indian Consul General forwards 
information about the women to the Dubai police for use in 
investigations. 
 
-- Talks between Dubai Police and Dubai developer Emaar 
Properties to build two shelters for trafficking victims have 
progressed and the paperwork is now with the head of Dubai 
police, Al Murr of the Human Rights Care Department said. 
 
PUBLIC AWARENESS CAMPAIGN 
------------------------- 
 
-- At the Ministry of Information, which will also play a 
role in developing a public awareness campaign on the 
trafficking issue, Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed has 
instructed his staff to comb through the TIP mini-action plan 
(ref B) and TIP report to understand what the UAE needs to do 
by August 2 to bring itself into compliance with the minimum 
standards of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA). 
Ibrahim Al Abed, Sheikh Abdullah's media adviser and the 
director of the Emirates News Agency, called the Embassy June 
12 requesting a copy of the TVPA.  The UAEG's research on the 
TVPA, and on ILO labor standards, particularly the employment 
of children under 18 in hazardous work, prompted the decision 
by the Cabinet to amend the draft camel jockey law by raising 
the minimum age for jockeys from 16 to 18 (ref A). 
 
-- On June 16, semi-official Arabic "Al Ittihad" published an 
article about the Cabinet's decision to approve the camel 
jockey law.  The article explained that the law prohibited 
the trafficking, employment, and training of anyone under the 
age of 18 in camel activities, and noted that procedures for 
bringing underage camel jockeys to the UAE were being 
canceled.  The report also explained that Article Three of 
the law stipulates that any person who violates the law will 
be sentenced to a maximum of three years in prison and/or 
will be fined a minimum of 50,000 Dirhams ($13,500). 
 
-- The two major English dailies "Gulf News" (GN) and 
"Khaleej Times" (KT) have published several articles about 
the challenges facing domestic workers and laborers, and the 
UAEG's role in addressing these challenges: 
 
-- GN June 6: The Ministry of Labor formed a committee to try 
to resolve the case of 200 Asian workers who protested 
non-payment of wages. 
 
-- KT June 10: Medical doctors call for a law banning 
construction work in the summer afternoons, citing incidents 
of heat stroke. 
 
-- KT June 11: The number of maids who abscond from their 
abusive employers is increasing.  Domestic workers are 
caught, jailed, and deported, while sponsors are seldom 
punished. 
 
-- GN June 11: Account of a Filipino worker who had not been 
paid for two months after being promised a substantially 
higher wage.  The Labor Ministry summoned him to the Ministry 
to resolve his case. 
 
-- KT June 16: The Ministry of Labor will inspect and 
penalize companies that violate occupational safety rules in 
a move to protect laborers from health hazards, such as 
working outdoors for long hours during the summer. 
 
-- KT June 19: The Ministry of Labor intervened in the case 
of 20 Asian laborers who stopped working to protest their 
poor living conditions and non-payment of wages.  A Ministry 
official told the laborers that the labor camp would be 
inspected and back wages paid. 
UNICEF Role in Rehabilitating and Repatriating Jockeys 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
 
5. (U) UNICEF, meanwhile, has been assisting the Ministry of 
Interior with the time-consuming process of "mapping" the 
camel jockey population.  The goal is to learn as much as 
possible about the children's families, cultures, and 
employment background so that they can be properly 
rehabilitated, then repatriated to their home countries, 
where they will receive reintegration services from local 
NGOs.  UNICEF has been providing technical support to 
establish a database in the Ministry of Interior's Social 
Support Center in Abu Dhabi that will keep a record of all 
children who have been properly registered.  Each child's 
file will follow him to his home country for the follow-up 
care. 
 
6. (SBU) UNICEF offices in the three principal source 
countries for camel jockeys ) Pakistan, Bangladesh, and 
Sudan - are finalizing action plans of their own that include 
arrangements with the local governments for sending the boys 
home and ensuring the children get reintegrated well with 
their families and societies, UNICEF regional representative 
June Kunugi told Pol Chief June 12.  "Things are starting to 
fall in place.  It takes a while to coordinate all this," she 
added.  Under the UNICEF-Ministry of Interior project 
agreement signed May 8, the child jockeys will receive aid 
for their health, education, job, and other rehabilitation 
needs for two years.  More than 80 percent of the $2.7 
million fund established by the UAEG to help eradicate the 
problem of underage camel jockeys is allocated for the 
follow-up care in the home countries. 
 
7. (SBU) UNICEF representatives have discussed with the 
Ministry of Interior their concern that the repatriation 
process not be expedited for the sake of showing better 
results to the international community.  The welfare of the 
children must be the guiding operating principle, Kunugi 
said.  Kunugi said UNICEF wants to ensure that there is a 
full case history and file on each child before he is 
repatriated.  "We don,t want children going back to their 
home countries without the full support they deserve," Kunugi 
said.  The more than 200 children who were repatriated to 
their home countries prior to the MOI-UNICEF project 
commencing could potentially benefit from the follow-up care. 
 Kunugi said the challenge for UNICEF offices, local 
governments, and NGOs is to locate the children who have gone 
home to the source countries. 
 
Comment: 
------- 
 
8. (C) The UAEG is off to a good start in trying to address 
each of the steps in the TIP action plan.  The leadership 
tells us that it is committed to getting results.  While 
progress is being made to address the trafficking of children 
as camel jockeys, we will need to continue encouraging 
additional steps on the other forms of human trafficking. 
SISON