OSCE supports Albanian campaign against child begging

Anyone visiting Albania will soon meet the "street children". These are children who fall into begging either as a consequence of poverty or are forced into it by adults who find that sending children begging is more lucrative than working themselves.

Street begging denies children key rights. It keeps them from school and deprives them of appropriate shelter and health care. Without education or valuable skills, begging undermines their future opportunities.

To highlight the effects of this type of child abuse, the OSCE Presence in Albania is supporting a one-month national public campaign. The awareness-raising campaign runs through mid-July and is an initiative of Albania's All Against Child Trafficking, a coalition of 14 national and international organizations working to assist and protect Albanian children. The Presence has worked on the campaign's objectives and strategy.

"The campaign aims at reaching not only the general public, but also the institutions responsible for protecting children's rights," says Juliana Rexha, National Anti-Trafficking Officer for the OSCE in Albania. "The message is that coins given out to begging children reinforce the cycle of child exploitation."

Comprehensive media campaign

The campaign includes television, radio and newspaper public service announcements as well as billboards, posters and illuminated announcements at city bus stops. To reach the widest possible audience, the television announcement is being broadcast on the country's three main channels.

A survey of 400 people before the campaign's launch showed that few citizens had a clear understanding of the forced begging phenomenon. Only 14 per cent of those surveyed were aware that the money collected by the begging children ended up in their handlers' pockets. More than 57 per cent did not know how to help the children other than to give them money.

"The street exposes children to many forms of abuse and/or use of children for illegal activities, including prostitution," said Thierry Agagliate, delegate of the Albania-Kosovo branch of Terre des Hommes, an NGO network that works to protect children's rights. "We are currently documenting concrete cases to demonstrate that street begging leads to more severe forms of exploitation."

Street kids, runaways and children living in poverty can fall under the control of traffickers who force them into begging rings. Children are sometimes intentionally disfigured to attract more money. They may be beaten or injured if they fail to bring in enough money. They are vulnerable to sexual abuse.

"Current legislation punishes these criminal activities if they are committed by traffickers, but in most cases it is the parents who are forcing the children to beg. Under the current legislation it is very difficult to punish parents or tutors," says Holta Kotherja, Head of the Legal Clinic for Minors at the Albanian Helsinki Committee, part of an NGO network that acts to protect human rights.

Begging incomes relatively high

Incomes from child begging are relatively high, so that parents find it more profitable than working.

"A family can earn 10 to 15 euros per day per child in Albania, which is more than a teacher's salary... With an average of three to four kids begging, it makes the business very profitable," says Agagliate, one of the campaign's main organizers.

Child begging is a major concern in Albania, where Terre des Hommes estimates that hundreds of children are living on the streets, particularly in the main cities. Sometimes, to increase the emotional appeal, children are forced to beg with infant siblings in their arms.

"In Tirana alone there are around 150 exploited kids on the streets on a regular basis. During the summer and around popular tourist resorts, the number is much higher. We estimate that there are around 6,000 children exploited in both Albania and Greece," says Agagliate.

People must realize that by giving coins to children they make their exploitation very profitable and hence share responsibility for it, he adds. This campaign complements the large-scale prevention and protection activities implemented by several NGOs and by the Trans-national Action against Child Trafficking programme which offers at-risk children and their parents a better alternative to the streets.

"There has been progress. Now we talk about hundreds of exploited children on Albanian streets rather than thousands," Agagliate says.