"Business" of beggars moves to Kosovo
Comment: This article describes that 43 children out of 100 children identified as begging in the streets of Prishtina the capital of Kosovo, come from Albania. The children have been identified, interviewed and repatriated in Albania. Police sources have described that children are accompanied to the city of Kukes, at the border. There they cross the border with final destination Prishtina. Children told Police that nobody forced them to come to Kosovo and beg but that they chose to. The article points out rightly that no sustainable actions have been taken by the police in Albania to protect children exploited for begging and work. The author emphasizes the fact that the Community Police in Kosovo, who has been recently established, has been able to build a program to protect children from violence and remove them from the street. The Police in Kosovo is collaborating with the Police in Albania by sharing lists of children and are trying to identify the exploiters. The police in Albania is not properly identifying children and the social services are not involved in rehabilitating the children.
Referring to unconfirmed sources the author mentions that there are some 800 children and women begging and working in the streets of Albania. The figures reported by BKTF coalition organizations who provide services to street children are 8 times lower. Anyhow, the situation remains severe.
While the author is describing the situation as a recent development, in fact the phenomenon of exploiting children for begging is going on for a while now. This has been previously reported by the media. A Bilateral agreement exists between Albania and Kosovo to identify and provide adequate protection for children and proper reintegration.
Both States are far from offering adequate protection to street children. The police in Albania is found helpless when trying to remove children from the street: if they arrest exploiters (parents or the legal guardian) the child will be left alone and might end up in much more vulnerable situation than the current one. Alternative services such as foster care or family support services are very weak and there are few social workers able to conduct outreach work and to help children.
The article is raising the problem of children beggars, trying to argue that little protection is offered to the children and even less is done to prevent its root causes. But then those issues are not covered and the author is overemphasizing the criminal impact of the phenomenon. The main risks for children is that life in the street would most probably lead them to become future criminal offenders. The social dimension is not tackled at all. The article should have been pointing out that a proper life is denied to these children that their development is gravely hampered and that immediate, concrete and sustainable actions should be taken from both countries to reduce the phenomenon.
Proper information and collaboration from both countries is missing in tacking child exploitation. In Kosovo children are simply “caught” by Police and sent back to the country without a careful assessment of the situation and of the needs of the child. Moreover, coordination and collaboration in ensuring the provision of the assistance needed by the child in full conformity with the rights of the child, his/her best interest and according to the highest standards of service delivery are not in place. Proper prevention and protection does take place, and as the article mentions, the Kosovar police found some of the children were returned to Prishtina to beg.
However a recent positive development is taking place. In a meeting with shelters and NGO representatives the Albanian Minister of Interior announced that the Albanian Government’s commitment to continue the fight against human trafficking will be strengthened and will be more systematic. Larger support will be given to better identification and protection of children, by financing residential centers which assist victims and by providing solutions to longtime problems such as lack of birth registration. In collaboration with line ministries, especially the Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities special attention will be given to the cases of children exploited by their parents or legal guardians. Relevant law and bylaws amendments will be introduced, in close consultations with civil society, to adapt domestic legislation with the Council of Europe Convention against Human Trafficking (2005) and to better implement existing strategies and protocols and mechanisms.
