Oppressed childrenDo we work for their sake? [Archives:2005/836/Opinion]
By Yasser al-Mayasi
[email protected]
Sad stories narrated by children who are illegally trafficked outside of their home country makes one irritated. They feel melancholy and sad for being harshly treated during their earlier days without mercy.
Poverty and misery made them drop out of school in search of income sources to sustain their families and improve their standards of living. They themselves shoulder the responsibility of their families at earlier ages, depriving them from enjoying their innocent childhood.
There are many reasons and motives behind the phenomenon of child trafficking, which warn of a social catastrophe to occur.
The faulty culture and our escapism from discussing such problems with transparency and clarity were the primary factors leading to the magnificence of such a phenomenon.
Child trafficking is on the way of getting more exacerbated, and it requires all the concerned authorities to take quick action to control this challenging phenomenon. Besides, the different media means must play an integral role in the adoption of children issues and restricting risks associated with them.
Weakness of performance on the part of the concerned bodies helps the phenomenon of child trafficking to get more exacerbated along with a variety of child-related issues.
Researches and studies conducted by concerned people on children issues revealed terrible scores of smuggled children from the Yemeni lands including female children under the age of 7, most of whom become subjected to severe beatings and sexual abuse.
What is more lamentable is the stance of the concerned bodies in the Yemeni government that do not pay any attention to the sufferings of children although the Yemeni Parliament ordered the formation of a committee to discuss the rights and freedoms of children seven months ago. The committee then conducted a field survey in the governorates that are notorious for the smuggling of children and sent reports concerning the phenomenon to the Parliament to deal with the issue but no response was shown.
Sorrowfully, the report has still been discussed up until today by the MPs who show more tendencies toward the discussion of political issues at the expense of children.
Until now, only one study has been conducted on child-related issues, by some non-governmental research centers in cooperation with the UNICEF. The study explored terrible scores and motives associating with child trafficking.
The family is also responsible for the smuggling of children, in addition to the lack of laws and legislations to protect children who are usually exposed to different kinds of abuse, and some times to death.
The increasing numbers of smuggled children reveal the extent of misery and strife children endure as well as for us to be careless about their sufferings.
One can realize the days that children are harshly treated, even within the scopes of their families and schools, and some families are found to prefer their children to be laborers in order to add to the family income, compelling them to drop school at earlier ages.
——
[archive-e:836-v:13-y:2005-d:2005-04-25-p:opinion]
