Through its connections with Sudan’s Eastern Front, the Eritrean regime is now trafficking Eritrean children to the Gulf States to serve as camel jockeys. 

The “legal” age for camel jockeys is 15 and it is not clear whether the children Eritrea is exporting are 15 or much younger.  What is clear is that the Arab Gulf States prefer children who are 8-12 years old.

According to our source, the children have been taken from the surrounding areas of Tessenei in Western Eritrea.  The trafficking is said to be carried out in coordination with officials from the Eastern Front who carry Eritrean diplomatic passports.

The cash-starved Eritrean regime has a long history of participating in any commercial activity that will raise money.  Shortly after independence, it organized a maid export service charging the mostly young females exorbitant rates for exit visas and work permits in the Middle East. 

The Eastern Front

The Eastern Front is an umbrella group of Sudanese opposition groups.  The umbrella includes, the Rashaida Free Lions, the Beja Congress and the Justice & Equality Movement, which hails from western Sudan but joined the Eastern Front through the facilitation of the Eritrean regime.  The Eritrean regime also facilitiated the peace treaty that legalized and legitimized the front in Sudan.    

The primary sources of funding for the Eastern Front are smuggled camels and carjacked Land Cruisers that end up in Eritrea. Herds of camels imported from Somalia and those smuggled out of Sudan are exported to the Gulf States—with documents showing that Eritrea is the place of origin.

One of the better known camel exporters is Mebrouk Mubarek Al-Rashidi who came to Eritrea shortly after the formation of the Free Lions. Al-Rashidi carries an Eritrean diplomatic passport.

Recently, the Eastern Front announced in Asmara that it will transform itself from a front to a political party. As a show of gratitutde, the Eastern Front gave PFDJ officials a couple of camels.

Camel Jockey

In the Middle East, Children aged between 8-12 are used as camel jockeys. The jockeys, known as Hajana, are used for Arab gulf Camel races known as 'Sebaq AlHjn'.  When they reach the age of 13, they are considered to be too heavy and returned to their parents.

Camel races in the Arab Gulf are akin to the English or Kentucky Derby horse races in the West. The stakes are huge amounts of money as well as hefty prize money that can run up to a million dollars per race category.

Along with Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Sudan was one of the chief exporters of child jockeys but it has deligitimized the activity since the world’s attention has focused on it following the Darfur crisis.

There are thousands of children used as camel jockeys in the Gulf States.