News
Friday, July 23, 2010
A committee on child camel jockeys to be formed
Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: A summery to form a National Implementation Committee for Child Camel Jockeys would soon be moved for the cabinet’s approval in order to identify, repatriate and rehabilitate the affected children.
This was decided during the fourth meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Child Camel Jockeys, held on Thursday under chairmanship of Federal Minister for Overseas Pakistanis Dr Farooq Sattar.
The committee also decided to advise the cabinet to reconstitute the administrative board, which would be comprised of three members: the interior secretary, the federal social welfare secretary and a representative of the UAE government.
The prime minister constituted the Cabinet Committee on Child Camel Jockeys in 2009. Previously, the Ministry of Interior of the UAE and Ministry of Overseas Pakistan signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to curb the crime. The UAE government launched a project titled “Children Involved in Camel Racing”, to compensate the physically injured and psychologically traumatised child camel jockeys.
Under the MoU signed by the two governments, the UAE government agreed to pay a base line payment of $1,000 to each claimant irrespective of the nature of the injury.
The government has distributed a total amount of $424,500 among claimants.
The proposed implementation committee would scrutinise the remaining 800 affected child camel jockeys and, after the approval of the administrative board, would disburse the compensation among them accordingly.
It was also decided that the Federal Ministry of Social Welfare would focus on the issue of child camel jockeys in future, which would also propose amendments to make the Human Trafficking Law more stringent to curb the menace.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk