Prevalence,
Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children In the first decade
of the 21st Century gvnet.com/streetchildren/Gambia.htm
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CAUTION: The following links
and accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the
situation in The Gambia. Some of these
links may lead to websites that present allegations that are unsubstantiated
or even false. No attempt has been made to validate their authenticity
or to verify their content. HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE Students If you are looking for
material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on this
page and others to see which aspect(s) of street life are of particular
interest to you. You might be
interested in exploring how children got there, how they survive, and how
some manage to leave the street.
Perhaps your paper could focus on how some street children abuse the
public and how they are abused by the public … and how they abuse each
other. Would you like to write about
market children? homeless children? Sexual and labor exploitation? begging? violence? addiction? hunger? neglect? etc. There is a lot to the subject of Street
Children. Scan other countries as well
as this one. Draw comparisons between
activity in adjacent countries and/or regions. Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line. Teachers Check out some of
the Resources
for Teachers attached to this website. ***
FEATURED ARTICLES *** Gambia deports 64
street children to Senegal Panapress PANA, 29 February
2008 www.afrik-news.com/news11412.html [accessed 16 May
2011] The Gambian Immigration Department has deported 64 street children, locally known as "almudus", who were rounded up in Banjul and Serrekunda and identified as Senegalese citizens. According to Superintendent Olimatou Jammen-Sonko, spokesperson of the Gambian Immigration, the children, who are all boys, aged between 10 and 17, were like vagabonds, noting that they were living by themselves, as most of them slept in the mosques and under verandas. Jammen-Sonko pointed out that some of them were being used as child labourers at the beach-side, paid low wages while most of them were not physically healthy and were causing nuisance within the communities. "From now on,
teenagers travelling to Gambia without parents will not be allowed in and the
department will put up all measures to stop the influx of children into the
Gambia," the spokesperson said. Poverty Drives
Children To The Streets Sulayman Makalo,
The Gambia www.chss.iup.edu/certj/makalCH.htm [accessed 16 May
2011] www.vepsponsorachild.org/poverty-drives-children-to-the-streets/ [accessed 29
November 2016] There was a phenomenon of dumping children in the Gambia from neighboring countries. Gambian law stipulates that children under 7 years of age found abandoned were to be considered Gambians. ***
ARCHIVES *** The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on the
Worst Forms of Child Labor U.S. Dept of Labor
Bureau of International Labor Affairs, 2005 www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/gambia.htm [accessed 6 February
2011] INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - In urban areas, children are commonly found working
as street vendors or taxi and bus assistants. The number of street
children is growing and has led to increased instances of children
begging. Consequently, their
vulnerability to exploitation has been exacerbated. Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices U.S. Dept of State
Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, March 8, 2006 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61571.htm [accessed 9 February
2020] SECTION
6 WORKER RIGHTS
– [d] The statutory minimum age for employment is 14 years; however, child
labor was a problem. There was no effective compulsory education, and because
of limited secondary school openings, most children completed formal
education by the age of 14 and then began work. Child labor protection does
not extend to youth performing customary chores on family farms or engaged in
petty trading. In rural areas most children assisted their families in
farming and housework. In urban areas many children worked as street vendors
or taxi and bus assistants. There were a few instances of children begging on
the street. Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC)
- 2001 UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child, 12 October 2001 sim.law.uu.nl/SIM/CaseLaw/uncom.nsf/0/591a51d686b9a0dcc1256aed0044ea6a?OpenDocument [accessed 6 February
2011] [54]. The Committee
notes the efforts of the State party to improve the situation of education in
the country, including the recent launching of the Third Education Sector Programme. Nevertheless, the Committee expresses concern
that primary education is not free in practice, which further limits access
to education, especially for girls, children from economically disadvantaged
families and those living in remote rural communities. Concern is also
expressed regarding low enrolment and high drop-out and repetition rates, insufficient
numbers of trained teachers, an insufficient number of schools and
classrooms, lack of relevant learning material, and geographical disparity in
enrolment rates and access to education [58]. The Committee
expresses grave concern at the high and increasing number of street children.
In particular, the Committee notes their limited access to health, education
and other social services as well as their vulnerability to police brutality,
sexual abuse and exploitation and economic exploitation. GAMBIA: Street
children persist despite crackdown UN Integrated
Regional Information Networks IRIN, Banjul, 4 June 2009 www.irinnews.org/report/84713/gambia-street-children-persist-despite-crackdown [accessed 10 March
2015] In Gambia ex-almodou Mutarr Nying, 12, escaped his marabout’s home in 2007 because he
could not endure the regular beatings from his teacher. Children are battered
if they do not deliver enough money to their teacher each night, he said,
revealing a scar on his neck he said was from such a beating. “It is a long time ago now [since I left].
I think two rains have passed since. Once he [the teacher] sent my peers in
search of me. They almost kidnapped me, but a market woman came to my
rescue.” He said: “For two
days she gave me food. I slept under her stall for a week without her
knowing." Mutarr still carries a can to
collect alms to support himself. He has not seen his parents for three years.
Reports to Treaty
Bodies - Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination UN Committee on the
Elimination of Racial Discrimination At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 16 May
2011] Concern was
expressed about: the fact that primary education is not free in practice; low
enrolment and high drop-out and repetition rates, insufficient numbers of
trained teachers, an insufficient number of schools and classrooms, the lack
of relevant learning material, and the geographical disparity in enrolment
rates and access to education; the high rate of illiteracy, especially among
girls; the quality of education; the inadequate standards, procedures and
policies to guarantee and protect the rights of refugee, asylum-seeking and
unaccompanied children; the high and increasing number of street children and
child beggars, their limited access to health, education and other social
services as well as their vulnerability to police brutality, sexual abuse and
exploitation and economic exploitation; the large number of children engaged
in labor and the lack of information and adequate data on the situation of
child labor and economic exploitation; the absence of a legal minimum age for
employment; the large and increasing number of child victims of commercial
sexual exploitation, including for prostitution and pornography, especially
among child laborers and street children; the insufficient programs for the
physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration of child victims
of such abuse and exploitation. Information about
Street Children [DOC] This report is taken
from “A Civil Society Forum for Anglophone West Africa on Promoting and
Protecting the Rights of Street Children”, 21-24 October 2003 in Accra, Ghana At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 16 May
2011] The common factor
among street children in the Gambia is poverty; low income, non-literate
families and poor living conditions are common. Families cannot meet most of
their basic requirements for food and shelter, and as a consequence, the
developmental growth of the children is severely affected. The major factors
pushing children onto the streets are therefore primarily poverty and
domestic violence. Committee On Rights
Of Child Concludes Review Of Gambia's Report On Implementation Of The
Convention UN Committee On
Rights Of Child CRC 28th session, 5 October 2001, Press Release www.unhchr.ch/huricane/huricane.nsf/0/7A288B086CCAEDAFC1256ADF0026E70D?opendocument [accessed 16 May
2011] RESPONSE OF GAMBIA - Many street
children were boys from neighboring countries like Senegal, Guinea and Mali
who come to the country under the guise of studying under Islamic tutors --
the marabouts. The majority of such children were Gambians. These
street children were usually between the ages of 6 and 15 years. Due to
pressure from their masters, some of them engaged in begging and
stealing. The Government has found that mobile schools were effective
with street children, particularly those who had dropped out of regular
schools. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this webpage as: Patt,
Prof. Martin, "Street Children – The Gambia",
http://gvnet.com/streetchildren/Gambia.htm, [accessed <date>] |
