Human Trafficking in [Iraq] [other countries]Street Children in [Iraq Child Prostitution in [Iraq] [other countries] |
Prevalence, Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children In the early
years of the 21st Century - 2000 to 2010 gvnet.com/streetchildren/Iraq.htm
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CAUTION: The following links and accompanying text have been culled
from the web to illuminate the situation in ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Grim
Time for Iraq's Street Children Charles A. Radin, The www.iraqfoundation.org/news/2003/fjun/4_children.html [accessed 31 May 2011] Iraqi society attaches a heavy
stigma to street children, whether they are orphans or war victims. These
days, most orphanages are accepting only the children they cared for before
the war who scattered during the conflict. The newly orphaned and deserted
children on the streets, said to number at least a few thousand, are objects
of scorn. Children lured into drugs and prostitution UN Integrated Regional Information Networks IRIN, www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=70094 [accessed 31 May 2011] GLUE SNIFFING - Sami Rubaie, 12, lives on the streets of "I cry every time a man has
sex with me and they usually hit me because I am crying. After I do it, my
boss gives me a good quantity of glue and around US $3 dollars for food. I
know what I'm doing is wrong but it's better than living with daily beatings
from my father for not bringing him enough money," Sami
said. ***
ARCHIVES *** UNICEF – www.unicef.org/infobycountry/iraq.html [accessed 31 May 2011] The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on the Worst Forms
of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/iraq.htm [accessed 13 February 2011] INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Recent information indicates that in urban areas,
children are employed in merchant shops, as ticket collectors on buses, and
are found washing cars, shining shoes, and cleaning litter from streets.
Children work as vendors of cigarettes, gum, candy, food, soft drinks,
pornographic videos, fruit, fuel, used clothes, and junk. Children also dig through rubbish, drive
donkey carts and work in brick factories in Human Rights Reports » 2005
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61689.htm [accessed 13 February 2011] CHILDREN - MOLSA operated a total of 22
orphanages for older children in In an effort to address juvenile
delinquency, the MOI, in cooperation with MOLSA, initiated on March 20 a
campaign to respond to the growing problem of street children. MOLSA
officials estimated that approximately 480 homeless children in Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of
the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, 9 October 1998 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/iraq1998.html [accessed 13 February 2011] [27] The Committee notes with
concern the situation of children living and/or working on the streets,
particularly as it relates to economic and sexual exploitation. In this
regard, the Committee encourages the State party to increase preventive
measures and its efforts to ensure the rehabilitation and reintegration of these
children. Iraqi Women Demand Humanitarian Attention for Iraqi
Children Iraqi Women's League, June 4 2008 www.politicalaffairs.net/iraqi-women-demand-humanitarian-attention-for-iraqi-children/ [accessed 31 May 2011] The number of those who have not
attended school is close to one million because of deteriorating security
conditions in most regions of In the midst of the despair that
hangs over people's lives, and the magnitude of disaster suffered by the
society and children in particular, thousands of them have turned into street
children and become addicts of drugs that have become widely smuggled or
cultivated since the occupation of our country. The overall tragic situation of children in
Iraq makes them among the most miserable children in the world. Despite this,
they have not yet found their place on the agenda and priorities of the Iraqi
government. The Children of Jasim Dakhil, Asharq Al-Awsat, www.asharq-e.com/news.asp?section=3&id=11264 [accessed 31 May 2011] Anyone passing through the popular
districts in Ahmed Salem, six years old, tried
to persuade people at Basra’s al Ashar market to
buy his nylon bags so that he can, “earn some money to provide food for his
mother and younger sister,” he said. Ahmed is one of dozens of children who
stand in traffic intersections trying to sell their wares of tissue boxes,
bananas, soft drinks, and chocolate. Halima Abdul Hussein, 8 years old,
speaks in a manner that does not belie the fact that she is an orphan so that
she would not evoke sympathy; she said that, “I live with my three cousins
and we go to the traffic intersection of al Tarbia
Street from early in the morning until the evening so we can earn our
livelihood,” and confirmed that she really wanted to go to school. Poverty Wages War on Iraqi Children Amit Pyakurel
(ammykumars), OhmyNews,
2007-03-15 english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?at_code=398032 [accessed 31 May 2011] The number of street children has
greatly risen in And, as many have died since the
start of the war, the significant increment of the number of widows and
orphans has also largely resulted in children who have to beg and try to
sustain their lives on the streets across the country. The NCCI reported that the
families facing fragile economic conditions (especially if their male
member/s, who are mostly synonymous to the major or sole breadwinner of the
family, are killed in the conflict) often send their children to beg on
streets as a mean of supplementing their income. Whereas, Cedric Turlan, the information officer of the NCCI, said that
some families also send their children to work, and this also to sustain
their livelihood or at least to feed themselves. Children lured into drugs and prostitution UN Integrated Regional Information Networks IRIN, www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=70094 [accessed 31 May 2011] GLUE SNIFFING - Sami Rubaie, 12, lives on the streets of "I cry every time a man has
sex with me and they usually hit me because I am crying. After I do it, my
boss gives me a good quantity of glue and around US $3 dollars for food. I
know what I'm doing is wrong but it's better than living with daily beatings
from my father for not bringing him enough money," Sami
said. Child beggars proliferate in Baghdad UN Integrated Regional Information Networks IRIN, www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70089 [accessed 31 May 2011] His father fell ill and could not
work so he sent his children out to beg. If they did not come home with enough
money, he would beat them, Ahmed said. His father died of kidney failure in
April 2005. "Now they are dead
but my brothers treat us well. We are happy even though we sleep in the open,
in a garden with only two blankets. I hope one day I will help all child
beggars in Iraq," Ahmed said, grinning from ear to ear before excusing
himself and running after an expensive-looking car. Ahmed is one of thousands of homeless
children throughout Iraq who survive by begging, stealing or scavenging in
garbage for food. Grim
Time for Charles A. Radin, The www.iraqfoundation.org/news/2003/fjun/4_children.html [accessed 31 May 2011] Iraqi society attaches a heavy
stigma to street children, whether they are orphans or war victims. These
days, most orphanages are accepting only the children they cared for before
the war who scattered during the conflict. The newly orphaned and deserted
children on the streets, said to number at least a few thousand, are objects
of scorn. Refugees International, 07/01/2003 At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 31 May 2011] Although the war in Institute for War & Peace Reporting iwpr.net/?p=icr&s=f&o=167824&apc_state=heniicr2003 [Last access date unavailable] Many orphans and other poor
children are forced into begging and prostitution. These children have joined the growing army
of street children who scrape and beg for a living in a city that is flooded
with weapons but has no government to impose law and order and deliver social
services. But in a city where few have
money, it is almost impossible to make a living on the street and most of the
children are barefoot, ragged and often appear to be starving. Dale Gavlak, Voice of www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2003/07/mil-030729-22e54398.htm [accessed 31 May 2011] In Saadoun
neighborhood, we saw a real tragedy - children getting raped all the time,
girls and boys. There are organized gangs giving children drugs, tablets,
alcohol to make them drunk and taking them to the hotels where they will be
raped as payment, if you want to have sex with a girl or a boy. Glimmer Of Hope For BBC News, 20 May, 2003 news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3043241.stm [accessed 31 May 2011] Since 1991 a great number have
been abandoned by parents too poor to feed them, and the numbers grew
dramatically during the conflict earlier this year, after looters attacked
orphanages following the fall of New Premises For Homeless Children
In Capital UN Integrated Regional Information Networks IRIN, www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=22448 [accessed 31 May 2011] It seems like a happy scene, but
if you talk to the former street children, you will find that many of them
are disturbed and potentially violent.
Under the former regime, the issue of street-children was kept under
wraps. Street Whys? Catherine Arnold, www.baghdadbulletin.com/pageArticle.php?article_id=152&cat_id=2 [accessed 31 May 2011] They appreciate the security, the
food and the activities we offer, but the settling in process is very
difficult especially if they are used to complete freedom. They are usually
illiterate and have little conception of accepted behavior. Our difficulty is
to know what to do with the older ones who are legally of age but who remain
vulnerable War Child At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly also be accessible [here] [accessed 31 May 2011] With support systems almost
non-existent, many children find themselves falling through the net
completely and end up living on the streets.
These kids - mostly boys, but girls too - come from homes broken by
the first Gulf War, or orphaned by the second, but these children have
survived to live a brutalized existence.
A day in a life on the streets offers a vicious reality - crime,
bloody violence, sexual abuse (and attendant diseases) and an ever-increasing
drug culture. Lives Less Ordinary Track track.cf.ac.uk/iraq.html [accessed 31 May 2011] Kevin and Helen went to UNICEF wary of post-war child trafficking in Iraq UNICEF Press Centre, www.unicef.org/newsline/2003/03nn50iraqtrafficking.htm [accessed 13 February 2011] Noting a flurry of news reports
indicating an increase in the number of children on the streets in UNICEF warns that while street
children are a concern in Iraq, there is no overnight solution. The issue of
street children is a very recent phenomenon in Iraq. Prior to the 1991 Gulf
War, the problem simply did not exist, and it will take time to reverse this
trend. – htsc New NGO Helps Street Children In Valentinas Mite, Radio Free Europe/Radio www.rferl.org/content/article/1053439.html [accessed 31 May 2011] "I am 14 years old. My mother
[left my father and started living with another man], and my father took us
away from our mother and then he started beating us. And then I ran
away." -- Kutaiba, a homeless Iraqi boy
Thousands of homeless children are living
on the streets of the Iraqi capital As Street Violence Flares In Lutheran World Relief, At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly also be accessible [here] [accessed 31 May 2011] The project, which depends on
local organizations and staff, will repair a shelter that provides street
children in north 'All Our Children' Approves New Projects for Church World Service/National Council of Churches CWS/NCC,
www.ncccusa.org/news/0404allourchildren.html [accessed 31 May 2011] In one project, Church World
Service (CWS) and its consortium partners approved repairs to the Bait al Tuful social institution, which provides shelter and care
for street children. Working with Enfants du Monde and the Iraqi Ministry of Labor and Social
Affairs (MOLSA), the institution serves as a transitional place where
children have access to education, hygiene and protection. All material used herein
reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial,
nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE
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Human Trafficking in [Iraq] [other countries]Street Children in [Iraq Child Prostitution in [Iraq] [other countries]