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IRAQ: Focus on boys trapped in commercial sex trade
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Dispatch from Iraq
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By IRIN
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Page 2 of 2
GOVERNMENT RESPONSE
The Ministry of Interior, after an appeal by the Ministry of Labour, has started a new commission to search for the ring leaders and tackle families sending their children into the sex trade.
A senior interior ministry official, who preferred to remain anonymous for his own security, said that leaders of two gangs in Baghdad had been captured so far.
More than 15 boys were also being questioned, he said. Their families had not been given the real reason for their detention, in case they responded with threats or violence to the boys.
"When you hear what the teenagers have been through, you really fear for your own children," the ministry official said. "They could fall victim any minute to these heartless gangs."
The Ministry of Labour has also developed a programme, focusing on non-judgemental psychological counselling, to rehabilitate boys who want to return to a normal life without suffering social discrimination.
RESCUE EFFORTS
Based on information supplied by the Ministry of Labour, two small local NGOs are trying to help the child sex workers. On of them, Iraqi Peace and Better Future (IPBF), has collected the names of more than 50 teenage boys who say they cannot leave the trade because of threats. Few cases have been resolved, however.
"We have been trying to do our best in taking those unlucky boys and girls from the streets of the capital," said Abdallah Jassim, spokesman for IPBF. "But sometimes we are stopped by the gangs, who threaten us. And the government cannot offer us special security on a daily basis."
The Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS) is also waiting for approval and funding for a proposed rehabilitation project for teenagers, it said. So far it has had few donors.
Meanwhile, with few positive prospects in sight, many boys in Baghdad are living in fear, urging that someone, somewhere come up with a solution to their plight.
"I hope that one day I will live without the fear that I may find my father with a gun or a knife ready to kill me because he has discovered what I do for a living," said Youssef Hatab, a 15 year-old boy.
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