JEDDAH, 11 May — Anti-beggary officials arrested more than 100 children from different locations in the city recently.
All the detained children, both girls and boys, who begged on behalf of others for a certain wage, were under 15, said an official of the anti-beggary department here.
The children, who were of Afghan or Myanmar origin, collected SR400,000 a month while each one of them earned an average of SR150 a day. They will be detained until their parents or sponsors come forward to complete investigation formalities.
Fahd Al-Harbi, director of Jeddah’s anti-beggary department, said the children were caught with the help of police and passport officials. The children were caught begging in front of hospitals and supermarkets and some of them begged under the cover of selling fake or old articles at traffic lights. Several of them resorted to ploys such as disfiguring their faces with colored substances or fixing bandages on their legs in order to arouse the sympathy of passers-by, Al-Harbi said.
Shortage of sufficient number of staff and vehicles are the two major problems faced by the department, he said. With limited number of cars the officials are unable to cover all areas where beggars are found in a city of Jeddah’s size and population. Some of the boys admitted that they begged for eight hours a day to earn their share. Their major strategy is constantly to pester people
