Unscrupulous persons who profit from child beggars may soon find themselves facing prosecution.
The Childcare Protection Agency (CPA) in a release yesterday disclosed that it is lobbying to have parents, guardians and anyone who places a child in a vulnerable position, including forcing them to beg in the streets, be charged and “face the full brunt of the law.”
CPA Director, Ann Greene said the move follows “increasing and alarming” reports received of children begging on the streets.
“I want to state clearly, I will be working with law enforcement to curb this appalling infringement of a child. We have reports of when the children return home, the adults take the money to buy drugs and alcohol. We have adults renting babies to go out and beg. We have entrenched beggars, who make it a family business,” Greene declared.
The Director implored persons not to give such children any money, and added that just stopping the children from begging is not enough as they also need to be protected.
“This is the aim of the Agency and the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security, to provide increased protection for children, and not have them in vulnerable positions on the streets. A child begging on the street is exposed to a number of dangers including sexual abuse. One young man recently removed from the streets told of having to perform sexual favours for adult predators for small change,” Greene was quoted as saying.
She also accused some news outlets of sensationalising child abuse and welfare stories and appealed to them to desist from doing so since it does not help the situation.
“Too often we see parents using the media to tell their versions of events to gain sympathy, and some journalists and media personalities, without fact-checking, disseminate the information amidst fanfare. Many parents you see take their stories to the media because they are warned that there is a possibility that they would be charged,” Greene said.
She added, “I want the public to understand because of the ethics of the profession, we cannot divulge all the horror stories that children received by the hands of their parents and guardians or say things so that children and their families could be identified.”
According to the CPA, the four main contributing factors to children’s vulnerabilities are: parental substance abuse; parental mental issues; domestic abuse/violence, and poverty.
CPA in collaboration with the Minis-try’s Social Services Department is executing programmes to address these issues affecting children and families by providing more social services at the community level, particularly through the Partnership Development Programme with key stakeholders and service providers, faith-based organisations, community-based organisations, NGOs, and other social groups.
Greene iterated that the CPA sees the public as a major partner in the fight to protect children, and thanked those persons who take time to call in and bring the agency’s attention to children in difficult circumstances, the release added.
