Prevalence,
Abuse & Exploitation of Street Children In the first decade
of the 21st Century gvnet.com/streetchildren/Yemen.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 ARTICLES *** YEMEN: New study
highlights plight of street children UN Integrated
Regional Information Networks IRIN, Sanaa, 8 July 2008 www.irinnews.org/report/79145/yemen-new-study-highlights-plight-of-street-children [accessed 10 March
2015] Ahmed (not his real
name) has been sleeping near a secondary school in the centre
of Sanaa city, "My father
went to Ahmed is among an
estimated 30,000 street children in Street children at
increased risk of sexual abuse UN Integrated
Regional Information Networks IRIN, Sanaa, 25 June 2007 www.irinnews.org/report/72906/yemen-street-children-at-increased-risk-of-sexual-abuse [accessed 10 March
2015] INCREASED NUMBER OF
STREET CHILDREN
- "If they have been on the street for a long time, the chances of them being sexually abused is around 90
percent," Shugaa said. According to
reports, boys as young as eight have been lured into the cars of strangers
for as little as US$1, while others are sexually abused by older boys living
rough on the street - a dire reminder of the vicious circle of abuse found
throughout the world involving street children. Yet the boys,
generally brought into the center by police or the center's own outreach programme, rarely divulge the abuse they have
suffered. "I never did those kinds of bad things, but I know
others who have," one 13-year-old boy at the center whispered, glancing
away from the peering eyes of other boys. "When you are hungry you do
what you have to do," he said, adding he knew of several occasions when
a boy would be brought to a man's home for a few days and routinely abused,
before being let go. "Yes, there
are some bad boys doing bad things," said another child at the centre
who did not know his own age and who had been left on the streets by his
mother to fend for himself after the death of his father in 1995. ***
ARCHIVES *** The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/yemen.htm [accessed 17 January
2011] INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Children also work as street vendors, beggars,
domestic servants, and in the fishing, leather, construction, and automobile
repair sectors. CURRENT
GOVERNMENT POLICIES AND PROGRAMS TO ELIMINATE THE WORST FORMS OF CHILD LABOR - In collaboration
with the Mayor of Sana’a, ILO-IPEC began providing remedial education and
vocational training in 2003 in a rehabilitation center for street children
who are victims of child labor. Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61703.htm [accessed 11
February 2020] CHILDREN
-
Child labor was a problem. The Child Rights Law prohibits child labor;
however, the law has not been implemented, and children as young as four
years of age worked in workshops, agriculture, or as street vendors. SECTION
6 WORKER RIGHTS
– [d] The Child Rights Law prohibits child labor; however, it has not been
effectively implemented. The established
minimum age for employment was 15 years in the private sector and 18 years in
the public sector. By special permit, children between the ages of 12 and 15
years could work. The government rarely enforced these provisions, especially
in rural and remote areas. The government also did not enforce laws requiring
nine years of compulsory education for children. Child labor was
common, especially in rural areas. Many children were required to work in
subsistence farming due to family poverty. Even in urban areas, children
worked in stores and workshops, sold goods and begged on the streets. Many
children of school age worked instead of attending school, particularly in
areas in which schools were not easily accessible. The Child Labor
Unit at the Ministry of Labor was responsible for implementing and enforcing
child labor laws and regulations; however, the unit's lack of resources
hampered enforcement. The Ministry of
Labor estimated that there were close to half a million working children,
ages 6 to 14 years, and that working children equaled 10 to 15 percent of the
total work force. The government was an active partner with the ILO's
International Program to Eliminate Child Labor. During the year, this program
offered remedial education, vocational training, counseling, and
reintegration of child laborers into schools. In September 2004 the
government entered into a grant agreement with a foreign government aimed at
combating the worst forms of child labor in the country Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child, 3 June 2005 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/yemen2005.html [accessed 17 January
2011] [70] The Committee
is deeply concerned at the information that many children are trafficked to
Saudi Arabia, often with the support of their parents, and that quite a
number of them are sent back and end up in the streets of larger cities. [72] While
welcoming the Program and Rehabilitation of Street children and the construction
of the safe Childhood Centre, in the capital municipality also extended to
the governorate of Aden, the Committee expresses its concern at the
increasing number of street children and the vulnerability of these children
to sexual abuse and exploitation and at the lack of a systematic and
comprehensive strategy to address the situation and protect these children. State of children
in Yemen deteriorates, Children’s Parliament Ashwaq Arrabyee,
The www.yobserver.com/culture-and-society/10015711.html [accessed 17 January
2011] thewip.net/2011/04/04/yemens-children-pay-high-price-for-conflict/ [accessed 15 January
2017] For his part, the
Director of the Democratic School Jamal al-Shami
said the situation of children in Yemen is shameful; nearly 2 million
children are out of school, 600,000 are working, and 30,000 are in the
streets of Sana’a and in local jails.
“Through field visits to prisons and schools, we have noticed that
children are exposed to torture by police officers, as well as violence in
homes, in schools, and on the streets. This is in addition to other issues,
including harassment and rape; about 60% of children in prisons and refuge
homes are exposed to some forms of torture,” Al-Shami
said. SITUATION OF THE CHILDREN OF SOMALI REFUGEES - The situation of
Somali refugees is particularly bad in the Haraz
Camp. The camp is overcrowded, there are no primary or secondary schools,
there are not enough books, and newborns are not registered. Bad Economic
Policies Blamed for Children Drop out Abdul www.yemenpost.net/59/LocalNews/20083.htm [accessed 17 August
2011] Improper economic
policies is to be blamed for children’s daily struggle for survival that
often sees them ending up as drug addicts, drug dealers or even as sex slaves
in the case of girls according to a study. The study, conducted by the
Supreme Council for Motherhood and Children (SCMC), in cooperation with the
Arab Council for Children and Development also mentions that poverty, job
loss, high fertility rates, lack of social services, and lack of support for
the poor by the government contributed to the crisis of street children. The study also
found that street children are affected by a number of diseases like
diarrhea, malaria, backache, constant dizziness, chronic chest inflammations,
ophthalmic, hepatitis and tonsillitis. Government study
shows 30000 children working in 8 Yemeni provinces Saba Net - www.sabanews.net/en/news161633.htm [accessed 17 August
2011] According to the
study, prepared by the Supreme Council for Motherhood and Childhood in
cooperation with the Arab Council for Childhood and Development, the majority
of street children are aged between 6 -14 years and the rate of male children
reached 70 per cent. The study mentioned
that the street children work as street vendors, cars washers, cleaners and
beggars in addition to working in markets, restaurants, laundries and
furnaces. According to the study, diseases
affecting the street children included malaria, diarrhea, various infections,
diabetes, anemia, pains of spinal and back, liver and skin diseases and
headaches and stomach pains. Fears over possibly
rising number of child labourers UN Integrated
Regional Information Networks IRIN, Sanaa, 27 August 2007 www.irinnews.org/report/73964/yemen-fears-over-possibly-rising-number-of-child-labourers [accessed 10 March
2015] "The situation
[in the country] is miserable. Child labour is on the rise due to the
deteriorated economic situation of most families," Jamal al-Shami, chairman of Child labour has
also increased the school dropout rate. "There are about two million
children out of school," al-Shami said, adding
that most of them will end up illiterate. Street children streetchildrennews.wordpress.com/2007/04/09/street-children-6/ [accessed 15 January
2017] Thus, the streets
become the sole place for such children where they spend both their working
hours and their resting times. Lying on cartons with only the sky as their
roof, “Poverty, want and
extremely low income are the main reasons for the phenomenon,” agrees Hassan
Al-Odaini, a child street vendor who sells kitchen
equipment in Mukalla’s women’s market, “What causes
a father send his child to such a faraway city to work are dire
circumstances, poverty and low income.” He also mentioned
blackmail practiced against street children by their bosses. “They quite
often deduct sums from our salary without any apparent reason, except that we
are children,” Ali lamented, “They don’t consider our hard living conditions,
together with our families; rather, they treat us as if they have neither
families nor children of their own.” Working toward a
better future for Yemeni children www.yobserver.com/reports/10011921.html [accessed 17 August
2011] According to
poverty surveys in 1999, the number of al-Akhdam
children, perhaps the poorest and most disadvantaged in The illiteracy rate
of this group is about 50 percent, while the ones who can read and write are
just 33 percent. The young females in this age group have the lowest
enrollment in secondary education and universities, about 16.3 percent,
compared with 40.8 percent of the young males. Of all female workers,
between15 to 24 years old, only 14 percent of them go to schools, compared
with 59 percent of male workers. The small number of teachers in
schools is another reason for the deterioration of education in this age
group. A study of street
children in Yemen Abdul-Aziz www.yobserver.com/local-news/10011530.html [accessed 17 August
2011] About 5,000
children are forced to live on the streets in four Yemeni governorates,
according to the results of the first stage of a new comprehensive survey of
street children. Stray animals are
the most abused and unwanted in Yemen www.yementimes.com/DefaultDET.aspx?i=990&p=health&a=1 [Last access date
unavailable] You
said in your proposal that this project will provide beggars and street
children with opportunities to work in the shelter, but you don’t give any
details of how that can be applied? Do contact with any street children
organizations in this regard? Our
project, if it can pull all its resources together, hopes to work with YERO,
a street children organization. Its initiator has already agreed to
coordinate with our project so we can both benefit from each other. Yemeni children narrate their
sufferings on the street Anwar Murghim & Fatima Al-Ajel,
The www.crin.org/resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=11679&flag=news [accessed 17 August
2011] They
shoulder the responsibility for others before themselves. Such is their fate
and their family circumstances, whether social or economic. They must spend
long hours on the streets under the sun’s blazing heat. What they receive
from their work is nothing as compared to the exploitation of their
childhood, which is subject to various sorts of violence. Factors affecting streetchildrennews.wordpress.com/2006/08/28/factors-affecting-yemeni-street-children/ [accessed 15 January
2017] Aged
between 6 and 18, Street children can be categorized according to their type
of work, the time of day they work and their living situation. Most children working or begging part of
the day or night are enrolled in school. They study in the morning and work
or beg at night, returning home to spend the night with their family. Children who work during the day usually
are school dropouts or those who didn’t attend school at all. Most are from
rural areas and live away from their family. They either come to cities with
relatives or alone and spend the night in inns or living in groups in
apartments. Yemeni street
children work in the following professions: Street vendors selling
clothes, home appliances and other commodities on streets and at traffic
lights/intersections; Car washers in street intersections and car
parks; Porters carrying commodities on their shoulders or on carts
working in general open markets and fruit and vegetable markets;
Workers in restaurants and cafés; Fare collectors on buses. Government is
losing street children At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 17 August
2011] The number of
street children in Sana'a governorate, according to a previous study
conducted by MSAL, there were 15,000 children on the streets. In the mean
time, this phenomenon is on increase due to the spread of poverty and more
drop-outs from school. Women complain of
the rise of street harassment Kawkab al-Thaibani, Yemen Observer, Jul 11, 2006 www.yobserver.com/reports/printer-10010498.html [accessed 17 August
2011] Another girl blamed
poverty and social fragmentation- “They have no goals, no jobs, and too much
free time” she said. “Poverty is part of the problem because it means there
are a lot of street children, and they soon learn how to bother girls on the
street.” The economic and
social situation of street children: A study Mohammed Al-Jabri, Sana'a University, June 29, 2006 [accessed 15 January
2017] Most street
children stated that a large part of their income contributes to their
families’ needs. It’s indicated that 92.9 percent of children whose families
live in Sana’a city assist their families financially; whereas 85 percent of
children whose families live outside Sana’a assist their families
financially. Some fathers
believe the street children phenomenon isn’t caused by family problems, but
rather by poverty. During a focus group discussion, one father explained, “I
was married to four wives. We had no problems, although each wife gave birth
to a child per year. After my economic situation worsened, I divorced three
of them. Now I don’t know where my kids are. I only have the kids from the
fourth wife and they dropped out of school. They work and beg and the reason
is poverty.” Leprosy, sexual and
skin diseases [accessed 15 January
2017] MORE
SUSCEPTIBLE TO DISEASE - Due
to the absence of personal cleanliness and prevailing unsanitary conditions,
most street children suffer scabies, chicken pox, measles and other
infectious illnesses transmitted by direct and indirect contact, according to
Kashnoon. “These children also are subjected to
respiratory diseases like sore throat, pneumonia, bronchitis and tonsillitis,
which may lead to meningitis,” he confirmed. Information
about Street Children - This report is taken
from “A Civil Society Forum for North Africa and the Middle East on Promoting
and Protecting the Rights of Street Children”, 3-6 March 2004, At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 17 August
2011] The phenomenon of
street children in www.ecpat.net/eng/ecpat_inter/Country/ChildProstitution/Yemen.html [Last access date
unavailable] Available
information indicates that 30,000 street
children in Mohammed bin www.yementimes.com/DefaultDET.aspx?i=682&p=local&a=2 [accessed 17 August
2011] streetchildrennews.wordpress.com/2006/01/19/yemeni-street-children/ [accessed 15 January
2017] More
than 30.000 children are living as vagrants in the streets of Yemen,
according to a study presented by the United Nations Children’s Fund,
UNICEF. The study mentioned that about
58 per cent, wash cars and beg, 17 per cent work as hardware collectors, 7 per
cent work as cattle grazers, 5 per cent work as fruit and vegetable sellers,
4 per cent as porters, 3 per cent as donkey cart riders, 2 per cent in
bakeries. Juveniles Between
The Reality And Ambition At one time this article
had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 17 August
2011] PAINFUL
SCENES - Gamil Massoud
al-Wasabi, 12-year-old, loiters bare-footed in Committee On Rights
Of Child Concludes Review Of Yemeni
Report On Measures To Implement Convention UN Committee on the
Rights on the Child, Press Release www.unhchr.ch/huricane/huricane.nsf/0/3EE651AA85CB04D8802567050036AA8A?opendocument [accessed 17 August
2011] DISCUSSION - Concerning
street children and beggars, the delegation said that the problem of poverty
had increased the rate of street children and those making a living through
begging. The Government had taken
steps to combat the phenomenon of street children, particularly child
beggars. The authorities were also
undertaking a study of the situation in order to find alternative means to
keep away children from the streets. Rude awakening Peter At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 2 October
2011] UNICEF discovered
child trafficking in Parents, Children
Complicit In Human Trafficking Mohammed At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 2 October
2011] The report found
that most children started the journey accompanied by a direct relation,
although some children traveled with other children instead. According to the study, just over 50% fell
within the age range 13-16 years old, and of the 59 cases, only two were
girls. On arrival in All
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