Lawyers refile Dubai slavery case

The use of child camel jockeys is now banned in Dubai

US lawyers have refiled a class-action lawsuit against the deputy ruler of Dubai for allegedly enslaving thousands of young children for camel races.

The case was dismissed by a court in Miami two months ago, but is now being filed in Kentucky, where Sheikh Hamdan al-Maktoum has business interests.

It accuses the sheikh and many unnamed others of abducting and trafficking up to 10,000 boys from Africa and Asia.

A representative of Sheikh Hamdan has dismissed the lawsuit as baseless.

"Venue-shopping by the plaintiffs' attorneys won't change the fact that this case simply doesn't belong in US courts," Dr Habib al-Mullah said in a statement.

"The lawsuit distracts attention from the truly important efforts by the UAE and Unicef to provide life-changing social services and financial compensation to boys formerly employed as camel jockeys."

It has been illegal to use children as camel jockeys in the UAE since 1993, but rigorous enforcement of the law is relatively recent.

'Forced labour'

The lawyers bringing the case said they were acting on behalf of thousands of families from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Mauritania and Sudan.

The slavery and forced labor they actually received will haunt them for the remainder of their lives Lawsuit filed against Sheikh Hamdan

The lawyers said the boys were obtained through abduction, false inducement or agreement, and then smuggled across international borders by people posing as the boys' parents.

"Once these individuals arrived in the United Arab Emirates or other countries of the Persian Gulf, they would then sell these boys into slavery to individuals in the camel-racing industry where the boys would, among other forced labour tasks, serve as jockeys," they alleged in the claim filed to the court.

Sheikh Hamdan's brother, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, was not named in the lawsuit, unlike in the action dismissed by the federal court in Florida.

The Miami case was dismissed by a judge after she ruled there was not a strong enough tie between Sheikh Hamdan and his businesses in the area.

In Kentucky, however, the Maktoum family has several racing horse stables and substantial business interests.