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Afghan child kidnapping rife
Seventeen children kidnapped from the streets of Kabul have been liberated by authorities facing what appears to be a growing problem in Afghanistan, Interior Minister Ali Ahmed Jalali said on Thursday. In the past few weeks police "have rescued more than 17 children from the grip of child-kidnappers," Jalali said, adding that police had arrested dozens of abductors. "This means that the issue of child abduction is a major problem for the security organs," the minister added. "Last year we arrested 100 people involved in the abduction of children. In the past two weeks we arrested one quarter of that number, so this means that child abduction is getting to be a more serious problem every day." Most of the children are snatched on their way to schools, parks, videogame saloons, clubs and other areas. "They kidnap children for different reasons - for child abuse, to use them for smuggling and other crimes and... to use their body parts. The children are both boys and girls," the minister told reporters. "It is both a domestic and international problem," he added. At least 750 Afghan children were abducted and taken to Saudi Arabia last year with about 250 of them eventually returned home, the minister said. A two-day government workshop on child trafficking which ended on Thursday was preparing a national strategy on stopping the practice which has apparently increased recently but remains undocumented, a UN spokesperson said. Posted by: TS (vice girl) 2004-05-02 |
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