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UAE keeping tab on ex-jockeys’ welfare

ABU DHABI — A high-ranking delegation from the Ministry of Interior paid a visit to Pakistan to follow up implementation of a joint UAE-Pakistan programme to rehabilitate child camel jockeys who were repatriated under the agreement between the UAE and the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef).

The delegation was sent on the directives of Lt.-General Shaikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Interior.

Major-General Khalil Badran, head of the delegation and Director-General of Finance and Services at Abu Dhabi Police, said the delegation ensured that effective rehabilitation programmes was being implemented there to provide food, clothes, education, health care and professional training to those children.

“Ninety-eight per cent of the repatriated children (686 out of 692) have been reunited with their families while the remaining six children are staying in shelters awaiting settlement of their status. Around 87 per cent of children attended schools for learning or vocational training under the supervision of Unicef and government of Pakistan,” he added.

He said that all allocated funds were transferred to the Unicef office in Islamabad so as to deliver them to the authorities responsible for implementing the rehabilitation programme.

The team met Pakistan Minister for Overseas Pakistanis and held talks with Unicef representatives and officials from the ministries of foreign affairs and interior. The delegation invited the Pakistani officials to attend a meeting scheduled in the UAE.

Talks focused on ways of developing the rehabilitation programme so that the objectives of the programme are achieved.

The team visited Lahore, Multan, Rahim Yar Khan and Islamabad and a number of villages where the repatriated children are living with their families.

• UAE