Prevalence,
Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children In the first decade of the 21st Century gvnet.com/streetchildren/Romania.htm
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CAUTION: The following links
and accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the
situation in 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 ARTICLE *** Street Kids Marissa Yaremich, Register, May 7, 2007 streetchildrennews.wordpress.com/2007/05/07/street-kids-2/ [accessed 12 July
2011] In the sewer’s dim
recesses, filthy children huddle with adults — all considered "street
kids" — and breathe in the dizzying narcotic fumes of a solvent-based
glue through plastic bags clutched to their mouths. For Gabi, 31, who resorted to sewer life
when he ran away from a state orphanage at age 14, the fumes kill his hunger
pangs, or in the plain English he’s learned in an Internet cafe, are used
"instead of meals." Gabi and some of
his 14 other sewer mates — either orphans or abused runaways — acknowledge in
their native Romanian tongue conveyed through a translator that life should
have more to offer than stealing or begging.
They then regroup on a rank mattress to inhale more glue. Laurenteu, 33, who spent the
last 15 years in the sewers following his release from a state orphanage,
does not have much faith in the government. Nearby in the Grozavesti-Metrou neighborhood, Elena, 18, covers dozens
of intravenous drug scars with a jacket and then crawls out of a sewer to
breastfeed her daughter, one-year-old Bianca. Unlike Laurenteu,
the runaway said she wants to believe in the government’s promises and
Booth’s commitment to help street kids because she wants to finish night
classes. Dina Kyriakidou, The International Child and Youth Care
Network CYC-NET, 23 July 2003 www.cyc-net.org/features/ftRomaniachildren.html [accessed 12 July
2011] Police figures show
the number of homeless children has been falling — from 2,500 in 2000 to
1,500 in 2002 — but the children themselves have been growing up. Many
of the homeless children who filled the Balkan country's streets after the
1989 collapse of communism are now having kids of their own. "We
are older now. Nobody wants to help us," Bogdan said.
"If you don't have a place to live, nobody gives you work." ***
ARCHIVES *** ECPAT Global Monitoring
Report on the status of action against commercial exploitation of children -
ROMANIA
[PDF] ECPAT International,
2006 www.ecpat.net/A4A_2005/PDF/Europe/Global_Monitoring_Report-ROMANIA.pdf [accessed 12 July
2011] www.ecpat.org/wp-content/uploads/legacy/Global_Monitoring_Report-ROMANIA.pdf [accessed 1 January
2017] A number of street
children in Romania are involved in prostitution or have been forced to
engage in the production of pornographic material, while other vulnerable
children are also recruited by paedophiles or
trafficking networks at a very early age. Most street children come from Roma
families. Street children are among the most vulnerable groups of children,
and both girls and boys are sexually exploited at a very early age. Rape is
very frequent in the streets, and girls and very young boys are the main
victims. There are at least 2,000 street children in Bucharest and 5,000 in
the whole country. The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/romania.htm [accessed 19
December 2010] INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Street children, children in urban areas, and Roma children
are the most vulnerable to the worst forms of child labor. Street children are found begging, washing
cars, selling merchandise, performing household work, collecting waste
products, loading and unloading merchandise, stealing, and engaging in prostitution. It is estimated that about 30 percent of
sex workers in Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61670.htm [accessed 29 March
2020] CHILDREN
-
While the government did not have official statistics on the scope of
homeless children living on the streets, police, social workers, and NGOs
estimated that between three thousand and five thousand children lived on the
streets, depending on the season. According to a UNICEF report, issued in
November in conjunction with the ministry of health and the former national
authority for child protection, about nine thousand children were abandoned
every year, with most going to institutions and foster homes. SECTION
6 WORKER RIGHTS
– [d] An international report released in November estimated that 3.9 million
of the 5.6 million children in the country were "economically
active." Over 300 thousand (approximately 7 percent) were "child
laborers," working without any contractual arrangements in agriculture
or low-skilled jobs, while 900 thousand (19 percent) worked in their own
households, especially in rural areas. Approximately 300 thousand (6 percent)
were engaged in physically demanding work, while 70 thousand (approximately 1
percent) were victims of the "worst forms of child labor,"
including hazardous work, sexual exploitation, forced labor, trafficking, or
criminal activity. This last category included more than 3 thousand
"street children," the majority of whom lived in Human Rights
Reports » 2004 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2004/41703.htm [accessed 29 March
2020] CHILDREN
- A
number of impoverished and apparently homeless children were visible on the
streets of larger cities. While the Government did not have statistics on
scope of the problem, police reports and social workers' estimates have
placed the number of street children nationwide at 1,500. This number was
lower than had been estimated in the past and questionable, given that street
children were extremely difficult to count. Approximately half
of the children remaining in the large childcare institutions were between
the ages of 14 and 18. Without changes to the system, a significant number
were likely to leave these institutions with no skills and employment and no
ability to earn a living or obtain housing. There was no systematic provision
of labor market information, skills training, or job placement services for
such persons and there was a high probability that they would gravitate to
the streets, engaging in prostitution or crime. Although independent living
programs were more widespread, a growing number of young persons were in need
of these services. The law requires
the National Agency for Employment to provide up to 75 percent of the median
national salary to employers for hiring persons between 16 and 25 years who
are at risk of social exclusion. Effective January 2005, the new law provides
that youth leaving the state institutional system may receive state
assistance for an additional 2 years, during which they would receive skills
training for independent living. Concluding Observations
of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child, 31 January 2003 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/romania2003.html [accessed 19 December
2010] [52] The Committee
notes the initiatives to launch special programs and provide free textbooks
and school materials, as well as meals to encourage school enrolment and
attendance. However, the Committee is concerned that: (a) The number of children from rural areas
and the percentage of girls dropping out of school are disproportionately
high; (d) Children belonging to
certain categories do not benefit from equal opportunities as concerns
education (i.e. children from less favored families, children with
disabilities, children affected by HIV/AIDS, children living in the streets
and the Roma and refugee children). [56] The Committee
is encouraged by the ongoing efforts of the Special Representative, in
cooperation with ILO and others, aimed at addressing the problem of child
labor in [60] The Committee
is encouraged by the ongoing initiatives to decrease the number of street
children, including the " Home Again" campaign. However it is
concerned that there remain large numbers of children living on the street in
urban areas, and in particular that:
(a) They are vulnerable to, among other things, sexual abuse,
violence, including from the police, lack of access to education, substance
abuse, sexually transmitted diseases, HIV/AIDS and malnutrition; (b) Institutionalization is frequently resorted
to; (c) There is a lack of services,
including recovery and reintegration services, specialized personnel and
shelters. Stray boys, in
Europe Alessandro Ursic, Peace Reporter, 30/05/2007 it.peacereporter.net/articolo/8051/ [accessed 12 July
2011] THE NUMBER OF “Come inside, I’ll
show you where I live,” says Catalin, 15. A hundred
meters or so through the undergrowth, a few bare bulbs illuminate a
collapsing shack. Home for fifteen teens and adults, between 14 and 30. They
sleep on communal mattresses on the ground. Miniature adults, but still with
the spirit of children, as shown by the giant stuffed animals that decorate
the shack. Both inside and outside their home, utter degradation: litter,
scattered newspapers, empty bottles everywhere. About one thousand
young people live like this in Bucharest. In winter, they sleep underground,
their front door a manhole cover. Not in the sewers, as many think, but the
tunnels that carry hot water pipes to the city’s apartment blocks. The pipes
keep the spaces warm, which means survival. All these young
people have similar stories. They ran away from home to escape from violent,
drunken fathers. Or they have no parents, or their families were too poor to
keep them, or they were placed in orphanages where the staff abused them.
Whatever the cause, it was less painful to flee and live like strays. As they
see it, it’s not so bad. “We like living here,” they say in the Costin Giorgeanu group. But
it’s clear they aren’t well. Aloisio attributes the
improvement to several factors. Many of the street children have died,
devastated by the life and Aurolac. Others have
found space in group homes set up in recent years. Today, few young people run
away to live in the street, but once a child decides to live there, it
becomes hard to bring him back. Circus gives
children newfound life - In 1992, French clown met hundreds of street kids
who lived like animals Tandem, 2008-11-16 www.corrieretandem.com/viewstory.php?storyid=8749 [accessed 12 July
2011] www.kinderkulturkarawane.de/english/Parada/project.htm [accessed 1 January
2017] The street children
of Bucharest live on the streets, in the sewers or in the run-down North
station. Today they number about 5,000. They live like lepers forgotten by
the State and only the sewers offer them the protection they need to survive
the harsh Romanian winters. In order to live in a warm and dry shelter they
have to put up with cockroaches and rats. The only place available for
cooking is the floor and there is no water for washing. They have fled from
homes or from their families in which they were beaten or who did not have
enough money to support them. Society did not pay attention to the street
children before 1989. Now the children have become adults. In North station
in Bucharest, their second generation is on its way. Hierarchies have
developed. What is worse, more than 75% of the children take drugs and sniff
poisonous solvents. Film Notes: Three
Romanian Movies Denise Roman, The
Update newsletter of the www.international.ucla.edu/euro/article.asp?parentid=91894 [accessed 12 July
2011] www.international.ucla.edu/asia/article/91894 [accessed 1 January
2017] [scroll down] The general banning
of abortion in Show support for Papakura Courier, 01/04/2008 www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/341514 [accessed 12 July
2011] The eye-opening
experience showed them just how tough life is for the street children. "There’s no such thing as a social
welfare system to start off with so they’ve got to earn a dollar," Jenny
says. "There are two-thirds more
boys than girls on the streets but it’s very difficult for girls. They are
basically sent out as prostitutes," she says. Many of the boys turn to begging to
survive. New Center in www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=201344 [accessed 19
December 2010] WHY ROMANIA? v
The number of missing children reported missing in Romania
has steadily increased from 244 in 2003, to 660 in 2004, to 750 in 2005. v
There are an estimated 100,000 homeless children
throughout Eastern Europe, including 2,000 in Romania. Child trafficking and
child prostitution are problems in Romania and represent a large threat
throughout Eastern Europe. Homeless or "street" children are
frequent victims. An estimated 5 percent of the homeless children in Romania
are forced into child prostitution. v
An estimated 30% of sex workers in Bucharest are under
18 years of age. Romania, and in particular Bucharest, is one of the key
travel destinations in Europe for child sex offenders. v
Romania is a country of origin and transit for women
and girls who are internationally trafficked from Moldova, Ukraine, and other
parts of the former Soviet Union to Asia, the Middle East and Europe. Orphans' Angel Register reporter
Marissa Yaremich and photographer Melanie Stengel, www.romanianewswatch.com/2007/05/orphans-angel.html [accessed 12 July
2011] Just neighborhoods
away from where Booth’s orphans fondly call Archway "Casa Nostra,"
or "Our House," scores of other children — dismissed as sub-class
Gypsies — crawl through sewers and fend off stray dogs for food scraps. Instead of identification papers to help
obtain jobs, they bear cheap tattoos depicting the names of honored, lost and
dead loved ones. Rather than home-cooked meals, they huff on the narcotic
fumes of Aurolac, an industrial paint, or
solvent-based glue. Dark lives of the
tunnel children Nicola Smith www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article1329494.ece Login Required …
[accessed 12 July 2011] At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible w/o login [here] As my eyes became
accustomed to the gloom, I saw the hand again. A little boy of 11 named Vlad
was gesturing to me to follow him into a Dickensian underworld that hundreds
of children call home. It was the heat
that had drawn them underground. While the temperature at pavement level
touched freezing, the tunnel was warm enough to stand in without a coat. But
the humidity was stifling; the stench of rotting rubbish and excrement almost
overpowering. Big heart, hundreds
of shoes Sara Gividen, The State Journal, December 22, 2006 www.state-journal.com/news/article/1200841 [accessed 12 July
2011] According to Nallia, who visits the country one to three times each
year, the street children are escapees from the countrys
poor orphanage system, or sent away by parents unable to care for them, or
runaways from abusers. He said many of
them slip into the sex industry, either as prostitutes or are sold to
pedophiles as a way to make money. He said the children often form gang-like
groups known as "surviving families" which leads to second and
third generations of street children. The Street Children
in 15 November 1998 ieftinex.3x.ro/!work!/index.htm [accessed 13 July
2011] On the streets, the
children earn money by begging, stealing, doing menial tasks or prostitution.
They live in small metal containers or card boxes (1 meter by 1.5 meters)
which line some of the sidewalks in Bucharest, in one of the city's main
train stations, the underground or the sewers. Glenda Cooper, BBC
News, news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3665646.stm [accessed 13 July
2011] Their home is in a
tunnel running under the city that forms part of a network carrying hot water
pipes. There is no natural light -
just a few candles on the walls. Rubbish is strewn across the floor. And there are children who say they are 16,
but look no older than 10, sniffing glue from bags. These children say this "home" is
their best option. Street Children in Street Kids Matter At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 13 July
2011] Imagine for a
moment what it would be like for you.
You have no money. You have no home. Your children are starving. In
exhaustion, you huddle together at the locked door of the metro subway. A
sad, pathetic scrap of rejected humanity.
This is the reality that many people would rather ignore. Street Children Save the Children - At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 13 July
2011] Currently, there
are almost 2.000 street children in ROMANIA - Report On
The Worst Forms Of Child Labour [PDF] The Global March
Against Child Labour beta.globalmarch.org/resourcecentre/world/romania.pdf [accessed 14 October
2012] OTHER HAZARDOUS CHILD
LABOUR - Street
Children - A recent survey on street children found that the main types of
work they did was agriculture, begging, delivery work, loading/unloading
goods and prostitution. Street Children -
According to Romanian Save the Children, there are between 5,000 and 6,000
children in Bucharest who live on the streets. Street The Clokes in www.tcweb.co.uk/smallworld/listings/16.html [accessed 13 July
2011] Yesterday we had a
lot of trouble. Many of the kids were high on 'Auralac'
- the solvent they inhale. Some were fighting and a few were quite aggressive
because when they are high they are not really themselves. We ended up having
to put them all out and not give them any food that day, except to Tatiana, a
fifteen year old who is pregnant. Bitter winter for Harold Briley, BBC
News, January 2, 1998 news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/43486.stm [accessed 13 July
2011] By midnight, when
the last of the commuters have hurried home, the Street Children doss down on
the cold stone floor of the Gara de Nord. Others
descend into the sewers to seek shelter from the winter winds swirling around
the silent station. An Ordinary Life - Ken Myers, The
Paper, April 8th, 2010 -- This cover story was written principally by Ken
Myers with additional data supplied by Messrs
Heard, Imper, and published accounts of the work of
Kiwanis within the nation of Romania www.thecommunitypaper.com/archive/2010/04_08/index.php [accessed 13 July
2011] [scroll down] Romania has an
estimated 6,000 children living on the streets. Transition to a
free market economy has left This has had a devastating
effect on family life. Facing extreme poverty, many parents resort to
home-made alcohol. Their children face the resulting brutality and a life of
enforced begging or stealing. More and more children are running away to
escape these hardships. The children
migrate via the railway network and congregate in large city stations. Most
children admitted to our house have a history of abuse at home. Street Children in The Relief Fund for www.relieffundforromania.co.uk/street_children.html [accessed 13 July
2011] Story by Ruth SoRelle; Photos by Smiley N. Pool, International
Association of Physicians in AIDS Care, Journal: March 1998 - Volume 4,
Number 3 www.aegis.com/pubs/iapac/1998/IA980305.html [accessed 13 July
2011] At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] The three emerged
from the subway station like tiny mice, furtive and gray with fatigue and
dirt. Ages 8, 10, and 11, they are members of a growing population of
homeless and abandoned children who populate the city's streets and sewers. Born to be Forgotten:
1996 Stories by Ruth SoRelle, Photography by Smiley N. Pool, The At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 13 July
2011] It's been six years
since we first saw the pictures of Trafficking
of children
[PDF] Report by Barbara Limanowska, Trafficking
in Human Beings in www.unicef.de/download/trafficking-see.pdf [accessed 13 July
2011] [Turn to: There
are also reports of Romanian children and adolescents in All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
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ARTICLES. Cite this webpage as: Patt,
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