Child Trafficking Yemen
(AKI) – The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has called for an end to the trafficking of children from Yemen to neighbouring Saudi Arabia, where more than 60 percent are then beaten, abused or robbed, the Arabic newspaper Al-Watan reports. In a new report, prepared with the help of the Yemeni Social Affairs Ministry, UNICEF says that 81.8 percent of children were trafficked with the approval of their parents, and against the will of the children in 59.3 percent of cases.
UNICEF puts this phenomenon largely down to poverty and the poor quality of life in Yemen, where 66.5 percent of the children’s families live on less than 108 dollars a month. It also says that more than 60 percent of the children trafficked abroad from Yemen are from families with eight or more members. Almost half of the families surveyed for the report said their living conditions improved after they sent their children to Saudi Arabia.
Even though most Yemeni children in Saudi Arabia are forced to beg to make money, they contribute up to 80 percent of their family’s income in some cases, the report says.
