Dubai-based carrier Emirates has joined forces with an animal charity to combat the trafficking of donkey skins. The Donkey Sanctuary and Emirates have created an operational guide to highlight the risks posed by the trade and its association with organised crime.
The guidelines explain the biosecurity risk of smuggling inadequately processed donkey skins alongside legitimate cargo such as leather or textiles, for example. It also highlights concealment methods and crime convergence, where networks involved in the donkey skin trade may also be linked to organised crime such as wildlife and drug trafficking.
According to The Donkey Sanctuary’s, six million donkeys are killed for their skins each year, the majority in Africa. These skins are then exported across the world, by ship and by air, before being used to make traditional medicine and remedies.
Research by the Sanctuary and the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School and Wildlife Conservation Research Unit has exposed the link between the movement of donkey skins with other illegal wildlife trafficking and organised crime. The unregulated and unhygienic skin trade also poses a serious threat to global biosecurity.
Emirates already bans transport of donkey hides and, in February this year, African Heads of State endorsed a continent-wide moratorium on the slaughter of donkeys for their skins at the 37th African Union (AU) Summit.
