NCRI – The Iranian regime’s director general of social welfare in the province of Kermanshah –Western Iran, said there are 700 child laborers in the province. He claimed that the Welfare policy is in line with the “support and empowerment” of child laborers and street children. This is while in an article last month, a local newspaper reported that the regime agents have been shaving heads of street children and child laborers in the city of Kermanshah to humiliate them and prevent their presence in the streets.
In his remarks while claiming to provide support for child laborers, Omid Qaderi said: “Children who [are forced to] work on the streets to earn a living may be only a child laborer, an unsupervised or badly supervised child, or an orphan or abandoned child on the street.”
He said the social welfare organization is in charge of taking care of the street children and child laborers and claimed: “Kermanshah is a leading province in addressing child laborers and in 2000 we have launched a center for street children in the pro-vince. After the children are identified and determine to be whether simply a child laborer or an orphaned and abandoned child, the center holds them in their custody and provides them with counseling and health screening services. In the child care center, they offer services that lead to empowerment and return of the children to the community.”
While this local authority claims to be addressing and providing services for child laborers, in August this year, Bakhtar newspaper in an article reported that an unnamed government institution [have been] shaving heads of these children in Kermanshah and humiliating them to prevent their presence in the streets. According to the report, these children were likely facing arrest and detention in the institution for a few days.
No accurate statistics on the number of child laborers
The director of social welfare in the province of Kermanshah revealed that there are 600 to 700 child laborers in the province and said: “Of this number, 300 have been identified, but due to the nature of the work the number of [statistics on] child laborers in the province and the country is not accurate.”
Referring to the plan for “consolidating child laborers and street children” in accordance with the Cabinet Ministers’ decision, Qaderi admitted: “This plan is done in partnership with the governorate, judiciary, municipalities, and the police and then the Welfare organization enters the project as social worker,” according to state-run Mersad News.
“According to the law, child labor is prohibited but regarding those (children) who are forced to work for a living, the Welfare organization’s policy in the field is empowerment of the children,” he claimed.
