www.middleasttimes.com Qatar plans to substitute robots for jockeys in camel races, a favorite sport in the Gulf region which has faced widespread criticism over the use of child jockeys from the Indian subcontinent.
But the sport's supremo in Doha insists Qatar never abused child camel jockeys in the first place and that the plan to use ‘robot-jockeys’ within the coming year was not in response to protests by human rights groups.
"We have successfully completed three phases in the production of the robot," the president of the organizing committee of camel races in Qatar said.
"We are awaiting a visit by the engineers handling the project to start the fourth, and probably last, phase," said Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassem Bin Faisal Al Thani.
He said the robot was being developed by a Swiss company but would not disclose further details, citing the terms of the contract with the unnamed firm. The robots are expected to be ready in 2005.
Hamad announced last March that robot-jockeys had been used in a camel race for the first time and the practice would be repeated.
Gulf Arab monarchies are trying to bring order to the national sport in the face of protests over the trafficking of young children from the subcontinent as jockeys.
Human rights groups have raised the alarm over the exploitation of children by traffickers who pay impoverished parents a paltry sum or simply resort to kidnapping their victims.
The children, mostly from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, or Pakistan, are then smuggled into Gulf states.
They are often starved by employers to keep them light and maximize their racing potential. Mounting camels three times their height, the children – some as young as six – face the risk of being thrown off or trampled.
Officials in Qatar's organizing committee of camel races have been proudly circulating sketches of the robots, which suggest the final product will be a much more advanced version of the one used on a trial basis earlier this year.
One of the sketches shows a human-shaped robot in the saddle, while another features a remote-control device to command the 'jockey' to make hand movements to direct the camel.
According to Hamad, the Swiss company was paid around $1.37 million to produce the robots, which will cost just under $5,500 apiece.
"The committee will buy 100 robots and rent them out at prices subsidized by the government," he said.
Qatar's main camel race carries a prize of more than $190,000, 10 percent of which goes to the parent or guardian of the jockey, who also gets a monthly salary of up to $400.
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