JEDDAH, 17 June 2007 — Overstayers taking advantage of young children to make money is still an ongoing phenomenon with many young children frequenting commercial centers and busy intersections begging for money.
Close to a major shopping area in Makkah, Arab News spotted five Afghan children, who were being supervised to sell items on the street by an older Afghan cobbler sitting at a corner close by.
I approached the cobbler to fix my shoe and noticed how the man would constantly keep looking left and right at the young Afghan children. A while later I moved away and watched the children from a distance, one was selling low-quality towels at SR5 each. When I said I would only pay SR3 he said that the person he was selling the items on behalf of would not agree and that he had been told to sell for SR5.
When I asked who the man was, the young boy ran off and disappeared into a crowd. That gave me a hint that the cobbler was in charge of the children. If he were a relative then the child would have addressed him as such, instead he referred to him simply as a man.
I approached another barefooted child aged around eight. The boy, who was wearing torn clothes, was begging money from passersby. I asked him where his father was. “He’s old and cannot move,” he replied.
I asked him where he lived and what he was doing. He said: “We get picked up everyday by the man mending shoes over there. At night he takes us home again. He gives my father some money for letting us come with him.”
I moved on and saw a little girl no older than four. The girl sat in a corner, not speaking, selling or begging. However, she accepted money from generous passersby.
It was hard to tell whether the girl was related to the man, but feeling sleepy she went to the cobbler and innocently fell asleep in a cardboard box close by. When will the authorities put a stop to expatriates abusing their children like this? Children who should be busy in school or playing with other kids.
