Obama's Middle East envoy has al Maktoum links

Bloomberg:

George Mitchell, President Barack Obama’s special Middle East troubleshooter, was chairman of a law firm that was paid about $8 million representing Dubai’s ruler in connection with a child-trafficking lawsuit.

The DLA Piper law firm did legal and lobbying work on the case, which alleged that Dubai’s Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum and another official used children kidnapped from other countries to ride as jockeys in camel races.
...
The camel-jockey suit was thrown out after the U.S. Justice Department notified a Miami federal judge that it planned to intervene and argue that al-Maktoum was immune from the suit as a foreign leader.
...
A February 2005 report on the U.S. State Department Web site says that in the United Arab Emirates, which includes Dubai, “trafficking of young, noncitizen boys employed as camel jockeys continued to be a serious problem, although the Government has pledged to eliminate this practice for boys under the age of 15.”
...
Mitchell was quoted by the state-owned Emirates News Agency in January 2007 as praising the United Arab Emirates and Dubai for a “remarkable partnership with UNICEF to locate, care for and repatriate underage camel jockeys. This program has been justly praised by the international community as a model solution to a serious problem.”

Camel jockey compensation coming?

Will the promised payments to child camel jockeys finally take place? Perhaps. The National reports:

Thousands of former child camel jockeys in four countries are a step closer to being compensated by the Government.

A senior Ministry of Interior delegation left for Pakistan yesterday, marking the start of an undertaking to track down and compensate the former jockeys.

The Government has previously said it would compensate jockeys who were trafficked and repatriated over the past 16 years.

The seven-member delegation will also travel to Bangladesh, Sudan and Mauritania over the next four weeks to meet government officials, as well as some of the former jockeys – some of whom are now adults – and their families.

Under the compensation plan, the jockeys will receive a minimum of US$1,000 (Dh3,673) regardless of how long they spent in the sport.

Those who sustained injuries while riding will receive larger amounts, while families of boys who died will also receive compensation.

“We will give [compensation] to anyone who worked as a rider in the Emirates – if you worked as a rakbee [rider] in the UAE, then we will give you compensation,” said Col Naser al Minhali, director of the Naturalisation and Residence Department at the ministry before flying to Lahore, the first stop on the mission’s trip to Pakistan.

“The Emirates was not forced to give compensation, but the UAE realised it had a problem and wanted to abolish it, and indeed has abolished it and found a solution.”

Read the rest here.

Click "camel jockeys" to read more on promises made. Reminds me of Xeno's paradox -- if you always go part way you never get there.

Child camel jockeys

Over at UAE community blog, nzm is putting 2 and 2 together. She finds that what the UAE promised in compensation to child jockeys ($9 million) is far in excess of what has been paid thus far. As in $1 for every $1000 promised. And that doesn't count the delay in payment.

UAE's racing camels running faster than ever :: ABC News

Video link.

It says a lot that ABC has after and before video of the ban on child jockeys. And video from a home for injured child jockeys.

The Dubai skyline is in the background.

Thanks to Brn posting at UAE community blog.

Emirates building boom depends on abused work force, Human Rights Watch says :: AP

This Associated Press report has been picked up by local papers across America. An extract:

The Emirates, the watchdog said, "has abdicated almost entirely from its responsibility to protect workers' rights."

The men earn as little as $135 (€105) per month in a country where the average wage is $2,100 (€1,600), Human Rights Watch says. The workers often toil for two or three years to pay off debts to unscrupulous labor recruiters, said the report, titled Building Towers, Cheating Workers.

"There's no reason for a global economic powerhouse like the U.A.E. to tolerate abusive and exploitative labor practices," said Human Rights Watch researcher Hadi Ghaemi. "None of this construction would be possible without these imported workers."

Labor Minister Ali Al Kaabi said the Emirates is beefing up its enforcement of already strict laws on labor rights and human trafficking. Al Kaabi acknowledged there are just 80 labor inspectors — too few to keep companies in line.

"Our laws are tougher than anyone else's in the Mideast," Al Kaabi said. "But the lack of inspectors means sometimes we don't see these problems."

The human rights report, released Sunday in a press conference at a Dubai hotel, comes days after Dubai leader Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum issued a sweeping program of labor reform that appeared timed to undercut the watchdog group's findings.

And on Saturday the country's ruler, Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, announced tough penalties, up to life imprisonment, against trafficking in humans, which has illegally brought domestic servants, prostitutes and even child camel race jockeys into the country.

Now, Sheik Mohammed has ordered the creation of an inspection directorate and a system of labor courts. He also requires companies to provide health insurance for all foreign workers and allow them to change jobs more easily.

Sometime next year, Al Kaabi said a new force of 2,000 inspectors will police this country's building sites and desert labor camps, home to hundreds of thousands of migrant workmen from South Asia.

"We're in the spotlight because of Dubai's development," Al Kaabi said. "Success means you get a lot of criticism."

The Emirates, like other Gulf countries, relies on foreign labor for private sector jobs. Labor conditions are similar in nearby Kuwait and Qatar; worse in Saudi Arabia and slightly better in Oman and Bahrain, Ghaemi said.

While the reforms may cut abuses, they won't do anything to raise salaries, which Al Kaabi said were set by "the market" in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan where wages are a tiny fraction of those in the wealthy Gulf.

Gulf developers use a clever tactic of "in-sourcing" laborers on three-year contracts, hiring men in South Asia on salaries that appear reasonable in their home countries. In many cases, the men go into debt to pay their own airfare and visa costs, even though Emirates law says companies must pay these fees. Workers wind up toiling a year or two just to pay off their loans, the rights group found.

At present there are at least 156 papers worldwide that have used this AP story on the HRW report. But perhaps someone thinks that we soon forget what we read in newspapers.

The UAE authorities made the same promise in January of this year to increase the number of inspectors from 80.

And in 2003 Gulf News quoted Dr Khalid Al Khazraji, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Labour:

To draw a clear picture of our labour inspection capabilities in the country, I would like to mention here that the ministry has nearly 80 inspectors to monitor more than 2.5 million labourers working in nearly 230,000 companies and business organisations operating in the emirates. With such a small number of inspectors we cannot play a proactive role in the market.

In 2002, the ministry recruited 60 inspectors. This year we are in the process of hiring 30 inspectors. Our target for the coming three years is to reach 480 labour inspectors.

I didn't go back further in the google wayback machine.

Stretching the definition of The Democracy Project :: The Corner on National Review - Part I

[Visitors from the Washington Post, please check this welcome statement.]

Andy McCarthy posts a paragraph (click title link above) from a friend who asks some tough questions about whether, in supporting the UAE/Dubai in the port deal, Bush isn't stretching the definition of the Democracy Project rather far.

Readers of The Emirates Economist will note that stretching the definition is in effect what I have been doing in arguing that the port deal supports the Virtue leg of the Vigilance and Virtue strategy in the war on terrorism.

McCarthy's correspondent tries to put UAE and Saudi Arabia in the same basket. Yet the difference between them is vast. Try living in both just a while and you'll know it's not far off to say the UAE is an open society with a popular government. Follow the news from the past several years and you will know that the citizens of the UAE are respected by their government and listened to even though it is not what we in the west would call democracy. And concrete steps are being taken towards elected government.

Women are in the cabinet in numbers proportionate to their representative in Bush's cabinet - or Clinton's for that matter. Among citizens pursuing higher education 70% are women.

Human rights issues. Yes, but the bulk are of this sort - low-wage workers come to this country voluntarily and live in conditions superior to those back home, but not like those most of us view as acceptable. That is, it's the Nike critique, which I don't buy. There have been breach of contract issues with workers and these have blemished the country's image for good reason. The UAE recognizes that it is in its interest to enforce contracts and is taking concrete steps in that direction.

Underage camel jockeys is a longstanding issue and it is not good that it has taken the government so long to doing something about it rather than giving it lip service. That said, in the last year real progress has been made.

The UAE supports the Democracy Project in Iraq. And the UAE's support - unspoken perhaps - is with the repressed majority in Iran.

In short, I believe a compelling case can be made that the UAE fits the profile of the kind of state that will lead the Middle East out of a dark period in its history. It fits the so-called Democracy Project.

For later: Part II - Pakistan v. UAE.

TAGS: Ports NRO Democracy Project

Gulfnews: Camel racing awaits return to golden era :: Gulf News

My question: Instead of robot jockeys why not simply impose a weight minimum on human jockeys?

My question answered: "Demand for jockeys that fit the current guidelines - more than 16 years old and weighing over 45 kg - has been low. The farm has a small handful of 17-year-old jockeys, like Mohammad Ayub from Pakistan, but Yaseen and Kraz said that it will take years before the camels will be ready to handle the bigger, heavier jockeys."

And this assertion poses a moral dilemma for those us who called for an end to using young boys as camel jockeys:

"I came from a poor family. But here, I was making more money than my entire family, more than a general in the Pakistani Army. I sent my money back home, and soon, my family became big traders in our hometown."

UPDATE: Must reading if this topic interests you - Secret Dubai collects together reports of clear abuse of young camel jockeys.

Return of child jockeys slow :: GN

Steady though slow process is being made to locate and repatriate child camel jockeys working in the UAE. It's much more than lipservice. But mistakes of the past encumber the effort.

Some quotes from the Gulf News report:

The UAE is the first country in the region to sign an international agreement to rehabilitate and repatriate child jockeys to their home countries.
. . .
The UAE authorities began repatriating the underage jockeys in March. They come from Bangladesh, Sudan and Mauritania, but the majority are from Pakistan.
. . .
About 40 former child camel jockeys from Pakistan are now being sent to an orphanage in Islamabad because they cannot remember their parents' names.
. . .
"About 40 Pakistani children have forgotten who their parents are and where they lived," said Imran Haider, Head of Chancery at the Pakistan Embassy in Abu Dhabi,who is responsible for repatriation of children to Pakistan.
. . .
He said reuniting the children with families is a very long and difficult process. "Many children left home many years ago and don't know their parents," he said. "Sometimes DNA tests are also conducted on parents to determine their parentage."
. . .
Haider said although there are no exact figures available, there are about 3,000 child camel jockeys in the UAE and about 70 per cent of them are Pakistanis. "We have already sent 418 children during the last few months and 100 more are in the pipeline," he said. Another batch of 24 children will be ready to leave for Pakistan next week.

Anti-slavery groups say about 3,000 underage boys still work as jockeys in UAE :: BBC NEWS

Quote:

The United Arab Emirates is to issue identity cards to camel race jockeys to prevent underage boys taking part in the popular and lucrative sport. The interior ministry said jockeys would now have to show valid cards before they would be allowed to race.
. . .
Using children as jockeys has officially been banned in the UAE since 1980 but the law was openly flouted. Earlier this year it tightened the rules, banning under-16s and those lighter than 45kg (100lb) from racing.

I've often wondered why part of the solution isn't simply to make every camel carry the same weight. If your jockey is lighter than the minimum, then the difference is added in deadweights. Couldn't this be self enforcing: Why should it be a matter of pride that your camel bet mine by carrying less weight?

Emirates act to repatriate children camel jockeys :: Arabic News

Quoting, emphasis added:

Preliminary figures provided by the UAE's Ministry of Interior indicate that around 3,000 children are currently involved in camel racing, of whom around 2,800 are aged under 10 years old. With UNICEF's technical assistance, the UAE's Ministry of Interior plans to review these figures in a survey of camel jockeys. "We applaud these bold initiatives by the UAE, on the one hand cracking down on the import and employment of children as camel jockeys, and on the other hand working with the countries from which the children came to ensure a safe return to the children's families.

The BBC noted in July that "Using children has officially been banned in the UAE since 1980. Earlier this year it tightened the rules, banning under-16s and those lighter than 45kg (100lb) from racing."
. . .
UNICEF announced this month that the United Arab Emirates is acting implement a new law that bans children camel jockeys for the traditional camel racing sport.

Earlier this month, August 11, the first group of Bangladeshi camel jockeys has been repatriated from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and arrived safely in Dhaka.

The thirty six former camel jockeys aged between 4 and 15 were greeted by the State Minister of Home Affairs, Md. Lutfozzaman Babar and UNICEF country representative Morten Giersing at Zia International airport after their flight from Abu Dhabi.

A further 15 children were also repatriated bringing the number of children who arrived today [8/22/2005 ] from the UAE to 51.

"The priority for these children now is that they be rehabilitated and reintegrated into the family, their local communities and Bangladesh society. Their safety and well-being is our focus now," said Mr Giersing.

In May of this year the government of the UAE Government banned camel racing with the use of underage jockeys - that is, children under the age of 16. Most of these children received little or no pay, had no access to education, were starved before races to keep their weight down and were separated from family and culture.

Some of these children were trafficked from Bangladesh, others were sent there to earn money for their families back home and others were used as underage jockeys to earn money for the family living in the UAE.

The UAE has made a start: 51 out of 3,000. Earlier other children were repatriated to their home countries. There's still a long way to go.

What will the parents do when the child is repatriated? Send them out to work in the next best alternative?

Of the children still in the UAE, how are they being treated by their employer now that their usefulness to the employer has been lost (to the extent the law is enforced)?

Robot camel-jockeys take to the track :: New Scientist

Quoting:

An unnamed Swiss company has reportedly been paid $1.3m to develop the robotic jockeys, which are sold for around $5500 each. The first trials involving the riders took place in April 2005.

The remote-controlled riders have mechanical legs for balancing or leaning and mechanical arms for pulling on their camel's reins.

Robert Richardson, a robotics expert at the University of Manchester, UK, says the design may be simple, but it could still have problems. "When you're connecting a robotic system to an animal, or a human, you have to be careful," he told New Scientist. He adds that a completely autonomous design could be even more hazardous.

More, from a New Scientist article of 11 April 05:

Karl Iagnemma, a robotics expert at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US, says that, although unusual, the idea is certainly feasible. "It just depends on the nuances of camel control," he told New Scientist. "And the level of autonomy you want."

Illustrations previously released show a system capable of leaning from side to side and pulling on the reins. Another sketch reveals a small system for remotely controlling the jockeys. An unnamed Swiss company was reportedly paid $1.3m to develop the robotic jockeys, which will be sold for around $5500 each.

Iagnemma says making a robotic jockey that could automatically control a camel during a race would be an even more interesting problem. "The logical extension is to develop an autonomous jockey," he says. "And then, I guess, a robot camel."

UAE gets serious about underage jockeys :: Gulf News

QUOTE\ Shaikh Khalifa, in recognising the fact that there are some racing camel owners who are prepared to take a chance with their jockeys, has imposed very stiff fines and jail for anyone found contravening the law. What is required now are proper medical checks to ensure the children meet the age criteria. /UNQUOTE

Child jockeys relive Dubai ordeal :: BBC

QUOTE\ The boys were evidently traumatised by the abject conditions under which they were kept by the camel and racetrack owners. The boys were crowded into huts and slept on hard floors. "I shared a room with another boy and four camel workers," says Shaukat. "It used to be very, very hot." At 10, he has already spent eight years in Abu Dhabi.

Shaukat recalls getting only a piece of bread and tea for breakfast and some rice with lentils for the rest of the day. "I slept at 2300 and woke up for work at 0400," he says. "My life was OK but I felt very tired all the time." Insufficient food and a lack of sleep was a common strategy used to keep the jockeys' weight down.
. . .
Yaqub pointed to another boy who looked about eight years old. He had a broken arm that had obviously healed badly in the absence of proper medical attention.

Injured child jockeys were seldom taken to hospitals because that could bring the illegal nature of their employment to light.
. . .
In most cases, he says, parents sell their children to "agents" who promise jobs for the children but end up selling them to camel racers. At times, the agent's cut is a mere $500. Back in Pakistan, the child's parents get 250 to 500 dirhams ($68-$136) a month for as long as the child is of any use to the employer.

"It is not always poverty that forces parents to send their children away," says Mr Shad. "Sometimes, it is sheer greed." Shaukat says his father accompanied him and his brother to the Gulf and left them there. But Mr Shad says in many instances these "parents" are actually foster parents who adopted the children - preferably at a very young age.
. . .
But Mr Shad admits that the authorities are not yet clear if they want to hand these children over to the parents who sent them away in the first place. Their main fear is that many of them may end up being pushed into some kind of hazardous employment again.

Asked if he would like to go back to Dubai, Yaqub smiles. "I will go back when I am older. The laws have become too strict now. You have to be 16 years of age and weigh at least 45 kg," he says. "This means that instead of losing weight, I now have to gain some if I am to go back." /UNQUOTE

Kuwait joins list of countries to adopt robot camel jockeys :: Aljazeera.Net
Gulf Arabs dispute US abuse claims

Officials in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE were either unreachable or unwilling to immediately comment on the US report, but in Kuwait a senior official said his country had adopted stiff measures to clamp down on human-trafficking.

These included closing the camel race club for four months in punishment for using child jockeys.

The government reopened it only after the club pledged not to violate the law banning the use of jockeys under 18 or weighing less than 45kg, said Adnan al-Omar, assistant undersecretary at the social affairs and labour ministry.

A plan to replace human jockeys by robots could be applied within weeks, he said.

Omar said Kuwait, which hosts 1.8 million foreigners, was considering a study by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to "find alternatives for the sponsor system", which binds foreign workers with a view to safeguarding their dignity.

Both Qatar and the UAE have already tested the use of robots as jockeys after banning children in the region's popular sport, and the UAE has signed an agreement with the United Nations children's fund Unicef to rehabilitate child camel jockeys.

But the State Department report said "the trafficking and exploitation of South Asian and African children as camel jockeys has burgeoned in the Gulf states" despite promises to curb the practice.

Emphasis added. The sponsor system used through the Gulf Arab countries has been abused by some. When workers cannot switch to another employer, and do not have access to the courts, that leaves them vulnerable to exploitation.

Kamel, the robot camel jockey - swissinfo

Welcome to Robot Camel Jockey (RCJ) Central. Thank you, TigerHawk, for this important designation.

swissinfo has now provided us with video of a RCJ in live competition with human camel jockeys. No word on the weight, age or nationality of the humans or whether UNICEF was present.

swissinfo writes:

---QUOTE---
Child jockeys who race camels in the Gulf states could soon be replaced by robots thanks to a Swiss firm, which has developed mechanical camel riders.

K-team was commissioned to build the robots by the state of Qatar, which earlier this year prohibited children under 16 from being used as jockeys.

Team member Alexandre Colot was recently in the capital Doha to assess the performance of a robot called Kamel. He said the trials had been very successful and that the robots were fast catching up with their human counterparts.

"On a three-kilometre track, it ran at a maximum speed of 40km/h. We also did a full race on a five-km track and we were just ten seconds slower than the best time [recorded on that track]," he told swissinfo.

In all, it took one year and $1 million (SFr1.2 million) to develop Kamel in its present form. The project was finished in December 2004, but had to wait for a patent before going public.

"We’ve had ten engineers working on this project, two biologists and one designer, so it’s quite a large amount of work that has been done in one year," explained Colot.

The result is a robot which is designed to look like a small human. It fits into a specially designed saddle and has two arms that can operate the camel’s reins. It is also able to operate a whip.

Instructions are sent to the robot by remote control and walkie-talkie, operated by a camel handler who follows the racers in a vehicle.

The robot is also equipped with a global positioning system satellite beacon, as well as shock absorbers.

The plan is to have 20 robotic jockeys – which each cost around $5,000 - ready for the start of the racing season in October. Moves are already underway to set up an assembly plant, maintenance centre and training institute as a joint venture between Qatar and K-team, said Colot.

"It will take time before all races are run with only robots": Alexandre Colot, K-team

Enthusiasm

He added that Qatar, which owns the patent on the robot, was also considering selling the idea to other Arab countries where camel racing is popular.

But the engineer said that despite the authorities’ enthusiasm for the project - they want to replace all child jockeys with machines by 2007 - not everyone is so keen on the robots.

The camels have accepted their new mechanical jockeys– after a few teething problems – but the same cannot be said for some of the humans involved in the racing business. Some have expressed concern that robotic jockeys will ruin the lucrative sport, in which winners can pocket thousands of dollars.
---UNQUOTE; EMPHASIS ADDED---

What's the economics behind why not everyone in the sport is enthusiastic? Here are some conjectures:

1. Romance. Demand for the sport will wane once the romance of human riding the camels is gone.
2. Erosion of culture. Globalization and technology will infect yet another part of Gulf Arab culture.
3. Fall in value of human capital. Those who have invested in human camel jockeys want to protect their investment. They fear capital-labor substitution.

My money is on #3, the Luddites.

Or is that Luddites-once-removed - it is not the jockeys so much as their long-term leasers.

Note: The local version of bull fighting is also under threat of OSHA-ization.

Robot camel jockeys: Part II - Gulf News

The remote-controlled machine passed a successful trial in a 2.5 km race at Shahaniya racetrack [Doha, Qatar] two weeks ago.

"The machine is still under development and must be completed before we can deploy it in the races," said Shaikh Abdullah Bin Saud Al Thani, head of the robot jockey committee (RJC).

The robot developer, the Swiss Alexandre Colot, is to conduct a series of trials until the machine is ready.

A robot jockey weighs between 15 and 20 kilos. The difficult part of the trial is to adjust it to the camel's movements and size.

Qatar Industrial Development Bank (QIDB) has fully financed the development of the 3 million riyal project, under the directives of Prime Minister Shaikh Abdullah Bin Khalifa Al Thani.

In addition, Qatar has bought exclusive rights to use the technology and the invention has already been patented under the name of the country, Shaikh Abdullah Bin Saud said.

Gulf News

Shaikh Abdullah said the RJC has not yet taken a decision over the sale of the machines and how much they would eventually cost.

He said RJC will offer training sessions on how to use the robot for all those concerned starting September.

A similar test was conducted in Dubai one month ago. See my post and my not so tongue-in-cheek followup on job market implications.

India: Don't blame us for underage camel jockeys - 7Days: "'Neither the embassy of India nor the Consulate General of India in Dubai has had any information about Indian children being abused as camel jockeys in the UAE and, moreover no such case has been brought to our notice by the local authorities in spite of specific requests for any information that they may have on this issue.' The embassy said the last case involving a child that came to its notice was in May 1997, when a 11-year old Indian child who had accompanied his father was used as a camel jockey by his UAE sponsor. Children from the seven nations will have to carry their own passports by June to prevent them being smuggled into the UAE. The Interior Ministry said children had been brought into the country in the past by being falsely recorded on their parents' passport."

Child camel jockeys make trip home - Gulf News: "As many as 3,000 child camel jockeys of different nationalities are in the UAE and efforts are being made to rescue and repatriate them. The minister also said 63 Pakistani children were sent home last month. 'These children were brought here when they were three to six years old. Some of them were smuggled while others were brought here with the consent of their parents. Every effort is being made to repatriate them and find their parents back home. We appreciate that the UAE Government is carrying out DNA tests on these children to help identify their parents,' the minister said. Some children have suffered injuries during camel races and died. 'There is no exact report on casualties. But there is no doubt injuries do take place and there have been deaths,' Azim said."

340 smuggled camel jockeys returned - Gulf News: "Many of children were smuggled out at the age of 4 and 5 years. He said the children who have been returned cannot identify their parents or families and they even don't know which area of pakistan they belong to."

Move to lower employee monitoring costs is revealing - Khaleej Times

A circular issued by the Organisation and Management Department in Abu Dhabi prohibited women employees of all local government departments from wearing veil at their workplace. “This decision came to bridge the gap as regards the issue of discipline at the workplace. It aims to ensure that the employee will not leave her workplace during the working hours," the circular said. It added that the veil helped some employees to leave and return to their workplace without being noticed, even with the monitoring cameras.

Not all sections of the government agree with the move:

Shaikh Dr Mohammed Sulaiman Faraj, Senior Preacher at the Ministry of Justice, Islamic Affairs and Auqaf, said hijab is a protective shield for woman as well as men against fitna or seduction and should not be taken out without legal necessity. "It is a command by Allah the Almighty for women to cover the parts of their body. There are different opinions that if there is no fitna then the woman can take it out from the parts covering her palm and face but this is not a call to ask people to take hijab out," he said. He added: "No one has the right to prohibit women from wearing hijab unless there is a legal necessity".

Equal treatment sought by female employees:

S. Amantullah, a government employee, said this move would compromise women's freedom. "It will be like infringing on our rights. This is about our freedom. No one has the right to tell us to take it out," she said. She said there were a lot of national male employees who leave their workplace during working hours and nobody questions them. "A lot of them come and leave and nobody dares to ask where they are going. So why should it be women."

Technological solution recommended:

"This is the 21st century. They came up with robots to act as camel jockeys... so why don't they come up with another smart hi-tech idea to identify employees and avoid this hassle. This is a religious matter and we should not tamper with it," said S. Amantullah.

She said many of her female colleagues were worried now after hearing the news, adding that nobody expected this from a Muslim country. "This is a Muslim country and if the government is doing this at its departments, then it will be opening Pandora's box," she said.

She said even without any such a procedures, any head of department or section should be having a system to monitor his staff. "If you are in charge of an office, if a lady worker is missing, you should know and you don't need to check and match faces to do that," she said.

Maybe the circular reveals more about the monitoring than about the monitored. Why are cameras being used to begin with?