Dubai:
More than 620kg of ivory worth Dh5 million was seized at Dubai International
Airport last month, the General Administration of Airport Security at Dubai
Police said on Tuesday.
The
ivory, seized from five different smugglers who were all coming form African
countries, was destined for countries in America and Asia. They were arrested
while transiting through Dubai Airport.
Ivory
trade is internationally banned according to the CITES convention, which the
UAE joined in 1990. The illegal trade has led to the endangerment of various
species, including Asian and African elephants, from which ivory is harvested
from. Earlier this year, Airport Security handed over more than 300kg of raw
ivory to the Ministry of Environment and Water.
Captain
Khalid Mohammad Noor, acting director of the Airport Police Department, said:
“We do what we can to prevent the illicit trade of ivory and the rest of the
substances listed in local and international laws.”
Noor
said officers have been aptly trained to handle such crimes. “Our officers
attend specialised workshops to help them deal with such situations. The
workshops are organised by the Ministry of Environment and Water.”
According
to him, there are strict penalties in place for those who attempt to smuggle
ivory. “The ivory trade causes death of tens of thousands of elephants every
year. The International Fund for Animal Welfare estimates that almost 50,000
elephants are killed annually to meet the growing demand for ivory.”
Awareness
campaigns against ivory sumggling are held annually by the airport security in
cooperation with the ministry and International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).
“We hold campaigns at airport terminals every year,” he said, “they are
dedicated to raise awareness about the dangers and effects of the ivory trade
and the subsequent risk of extinction of the targeted animals.”
Brigadier
Abdullah Hussain Khan, director of the General Administration of Airport
Security, said active role of Dubai Police in fighting the trade is contributing
to preservation of wildlife. “Dubai Police is doing its part to help protect
the plants and animals that are threatened with extinction,” he said, “it is in
our principles to thwart smuggling attempts.”
Dubai
Customs recently told Gulf News that intelligence reports by UAE authorities,
Interpol and IFAW are infiltrating illegal ivory trade networks and stemming
the flow of elephant tusks through major transit hubs such as Dubai.
Officials
said more than 1,500 ivory seizures by Dubai Customs between 2011 and 2014.
There was only one ivory seizure made in Dubai in the first six months of this
year.
At
an annual 10 per cent poaching rate, what’s left of wild elephants in Africa
could be decimated in as little as 10 years. –End-
Image
by: http://gulfnews.com/
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