MAKKAH: The soap opera of child exploitation continued unabated in Saudi Arabia without any mercy or passion from the families of these children.
These children, who are mostly foreigners, will bring tears to your eyes when you listen to their dramatic stories and the reasons that made them pose as street peddlers. What took place at a market place in Makkah recently was a heartbreaking story of child abuse.
A young girl, who was not more than four years of age, was selling chewing gum at the car park of the market. She had two boxes of chewing gum in her hands and a cloth bag on her shoulder to keep her money.
She was moving among cars trying to sell her commodity. She was too short to be seen by drivers or passengers and could have easily been run over by a vehicle.
She had no idea about the danger she was facing every time she came to the car park. She looked so innocent and brilliant and she gave me heartache.
I tried to talk to her but she did not speak Arabic. She only looked at me and smiled. I looked around for someone who spoke her language.
Through an interpreter, she told me that her name was Vima and that her father was too old to work so she was helping him by selling chewing gum.
While we were talking, a nine-year-old girl joined us. She said she was Vima’s cousin. She told us that Vima’s father was crippled and she was doing this job to help him.
Some of the shoppers who witnessed this scene cursed her parents for allowing her to go at this age to sell or beg.
A woman shopper began to cry loudly and among sobs urged those around her to save this young girl. One of the men tried to call the police in order to intervene and save the girl from the greediness of her father but stopped his attempt when a bystander told him that the police would only arrest her and put her at a special center for beggar children.
All those present were sympathetic with the innocent girl and were resenting her father for making her sell and beg along the streets and among cars.
Arab News took the case to the concerned officials who all denied child abuse by some foreigners who came to the Kingdom for Umrah and then decided to overstay.
Director of Social Affairs in Makkah Ali Al-Hanaki said most of the children selling chewing gum or tissues are in fact beggars in disguise.
He said a special committee was formed to check such cases and added that families of beggar children would be deported.
Director of the anti-begging office in Jeddah, Saad Al-Shahrani, said 98 percent of all beggars were foreigners.
Director of the office of the Commission to Promote Virtue and Prevent Vice Sheikh Ahmed Al-Ghamdi said any parents who allow their children to go out in the streets for selling or begging at this age cannot be true Muslims.
