Begging Children on the Rise

The number of children begging on the streets is increasing, but Syria’s legal system is not geared towards addressing their needs, the pro-government newspaper Al-Watan reported on June 11.



Al-Watan said boys and girls wandering the streets are increasingly in evidence. According to the ministry of social affairs and labour, 411 juveniles including 305 boys were arrested and charged with begging in the first five months of 2008.



Labib Kanjo, who heads the government-run Ibn Rashid shelter for beggars and homeless people, was quoted by the newspaper as saying most children at the facility have been abandoned by their parents, or have left home after a divorce.



There are children who are drug addicts, the victims of sexual abuse, or held by gangs of beggars. Some scar their faces to attract sympathy.



Some families beg for a living and force their children to work, Kanjo said. He claimed that 80 per cent of those who are arrested for begging are not actually in need, and said people only encouraged beggars by giving them money.



When beggars are picked up by the tourist police, they are held for anywhere between a few days and one-and-a-half months. Children aged ten or under can be released if their parents sign a pledge to keep them off the streets. But Kanjo said about half of the children the shelter assists end up back on the streets.



Al-Watan noted that are no civil society organisations addressing the problem.