MAKKAH, Apr 23 (Arab News): A number of Yemeni nationals who are in the Kingdom illegally are forcing Yemeni children under nine years of age to beg at petrol stations along highways and expressways. This phenomenon is on the increase, according to residents of Makkah who have called on authorities to stop it.
A number of Yemeni children told Arab News that they had been forced to beg by adults under the pretext that they were their families. “We have yielded to them and are giving them the money we collect through begging,” a Yemeni child said.
Another child, who is younger than nine, said he had come to the Kingdom with a large group of Yemeni men and women and that his father had instructed him to obey any orders given to him by the men and women. “My mission now is to beg for money by saying: ‘Please... give me SR10 to buy lunch for my mother and myself.’ This is during the day but in the evenings, I ask for money to buy dinner for the two of us,” he said. He said they started begging after Dhur prayer (midday prayer) and continued until late at night. “We give whatever we collect to the man who brought me here,” he added.
A girl who is younger than six was walking barefoot in the scorching sun. I gave her five riyals and asked her to tell me her story. She pointed to an old woman sitting some distance away and said that she was begging for her mother. I gave her an extra five riyals and asked her to tell me the truth. “In fact I do not know her at all. She forced me to say that she was my mother. I give her whatever I collect,” she said.
The young girl said she lived on top of a mountain with a group of men and women. “Every morning a man takes us and places us at various spots. Every young girl is accompanied by an old woman who pretends to be her mother,” she said.
A young boy, barely six, had been burned by the sun. He was asking people to give him money to buy lunch for his old disabled father. I gave him three riyals and asked him to tell me who his father was and where he came from. “I came from Yemen. Please leave me alone now. They ordered me to beg for my father who is back at home,” he said before running away.
It is usual at gas stations along the Haramain Expressway to see a Yemeni carrying a child, accompanied by a woman begging for money to buy food for the child.
I pretended to be a policeman and stopped one of the beggars and threatened to take him to the police station. He pleaded with me to leave him alone and I agreed if he would tell me the truth. He said: “We rent these children from their parents in Yemen and smuggle them with us through the mountains into the Kingdom. We then place them among petrol stations along the expressway. We divide them into groups and ask them to beg. They give us whatever they earn.
I asked him if there was any sexual abuse of the children, and he denied it. However, when I gave him a stern look, he admitted that both children and women were constantly abused.