UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: THESE KIDS WERE TO BE SOLD AS CAMEL JOCKEYS.
DUBAI - Police in Pakistan have foiled a bid to smuggle five young children into the United Arab Emirates (UAE) where they were to be sold as illegal camel jockeys.
Human-rights groups estimate that at least 30 children are kidnapped in Pakistan every month and smuggled to the Gulf state where they are used in the traditional sport of camel racing, according to The Times newspaper of London.
The three boys and two girls, aged between three and seven, were being prepared to board a flight from Islamabad to Dubai on Sunday night with a couple posing as their parents when officials became suspicious.
'When they arrived near the immigration counter, the children started crying,' said immigration officer Gulzar Ahmed.
'The couple tried to console the children but we doubted from their body language that they were the real parents.'
Two other suspects, believed to be part of a cartel supplying camel jockeys to the Gulf, were detained outside the terminal where they were waiting for the flight to take off before telephoning contacts in the UAE.
(c) 2002 Singapore Press Holdings Limited.


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