Street Children Are Buried in the Same Places Where They Sort Waste

A member of the Tehran City Council has called for attention to the dire conditions of street children, stating that these children fall ill and are buried in the very places where they sort waste. Tayebe Siawoshi, in an interview with ILNA on Wednesday, August 10, severely criticized the policies of the Tehran municipality in dealing with social harms such as child begging and waste scavenging. In response to recent statements by the mayor of Tehran, who promised to rid the capital of beggars within a year, she warned that 'such coercive measures will not work' and that 'borders must be controlled' to prevent the 'organized' movement of migrants towards Tehran. According to this city council member, 'there are organized networks in the process of transferring migrants' from the border to the capital, where 'more than twenty children aged 9 to 10 are gathered in one vehicle and brought to Tehran,' and then these children 'work under the contractors of the municipality, scavenging waste or working in waste sorting workshops.' Siawoshi thus considered the Tehran municipality itself to be a contributor to one of the social harms, stating: 'These children work under the contractors of the municipality. I thought perhaps with a change in city management this approach would change, but since the waste management system has not changed and these children are considered cheap labor, this process continues.' She further pointed out the calamities that street children face in Tehran, saying: 'The conditions of street children are reported to be very severe. These children become ill, contract AIDS, and are buried in the same waste sorting areas. Villagers around the Mahmoudabad pit constantly complain about the conditions of the area and say at least control the transmission of AIDS from the pits so it does not spread to us.' Previously, the head of the social committee of the Tehran City Council had also criticized the employment of child labor in the Tehran municipality. Elham Fakhari stated: 'Some contractors of the municipality employ street children and exploit them as cheap labor. These children sleep in waste sorting workshops, and we all know what dangers they are exposed to... Some of these children have contracted diseases such as hepatitis, AIDS, typhoid, and tetanus.' According to some reports, including statements from the Imam Ali Society, the vast majority of street children are Afghan migrants. Earlier in July, Fatemeh Daneshvar, another member of the Tehran City Council, warned about the prevalence of child labor in the capital. However, Daneshvar's statements were accompanied by other reports, including the sale of children or their disappearance in high-risk neighborhoods like Herandi. She stated: 'In many cases, children go missing, and their body parts are trafficked. After a while, the bodies of some of them are found in the deserts without kidneys and eyes.' Daneshvar also mentioned that some addicted parents do not even complain and are indifferent to the absence of their children.