Four-year-olds working on the streets, says World Vision

Children as young as four go out into the streets of Iraqi towns to beg and sell goods, before returning to their parents’ homes at night, according to findings by the international relief and development organisation World Vision. In northern Iraq, children work on the street for up to 12 hours a day, a recent assessment said. Some have been victims of violence. Others are school dropouts. Yet others have never have been to school at all. In many cases, members of their families are sick or disabled and unable to work. World Vision found that the daily earnings of such children ranged between 500 and 3,000 Iraqi dinars (16 US cents to $2). According to findings, there were only 12 social workers for the whole of the city of Mosul, which has a population of 1.3 million, and concluded that they faced a mammoth task in protecting children and vulnerable groups. "A lot of children are forced to work as vendors, but also they need a new perspective, after growing up in a world of distress and fear," World Vision’s Thomas von der Osten-Sacken told IRIN. "Children witnessed the cruelty of Saddam Husayn’s regime, their families were either displaced or killed, and so many are still internally displaced. A lot of psychological treatment and other programmes are needed to assist these children." World Vision, conjointly with the United Nations Children's Fund, is carrying out assessments in Mosul as part of a nationwide survey of the situation of children in Iraq.