Iran’s Trash Children: A Harrowing Reality

Garbage collector chidren in Iran- file photo
Written by Hamideh Taati 

A garbage lot in Shar-e Rey, south of Tehran, has become very important to locals who earn money from sorting trash, with some being lucky enough to find something edible or valuable in with the rubbish.

While this story would be tragic enough like that, most of the trash sorters are young children whose families are struggling to survive and are forced to send their children to do this dangerous work in order to make ends meet.

Worse still, the Regime has actually been charging the child garbage collectors 35 million rials for access to the lot and 5-7 million rials to rent small shacks to live in. Then, on October 16, several garbage lots in Ashraf Abad of Shar-e Rey were destroyed, forcing the garbage collectors to spend several nights in the neighboring deserts.

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· Oct 30, 2019
#Iranian Children Are the Regime’s First Victims http://www.ncr-iran.org/en/news/157-human-rights/26815-iranian-children-are-the-regime-s-first-victims …
Social unrest is felt all across Iran. The economic situation has resulted in people getting poorer with more people falling into the absolute poverty category.#FreeIran #NoImpunity4Mullahs #IranRegimeChange

Iranian Children Are the Regime’s First Victims
We are a broad coalition of democratic Iranian organizations, groups, and personalities providing current Iran news and Iranian opposition news and statements. More news here.

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However,a regime official(a member of Tehran’s city council),put the blame on children&their parents:Many families lease their children&are unconcerned about their welfare,indicating that drug use may b an issue.
Another reason4 #IranRegimeChange #FreeIran https://twitter.com/iran_policy/status/1143254404147101698?s=20 …

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According to the political-security deputy of the governor of Golestan province, northern #Iran, 25,000 children in this province are deprived from receiving education, making Golestan the second-worst province in this regard.https://www.ncr-iran.org/en/news/society/26366-25-000-iranian-children-in-golestan-province-deprived-of-education …

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Of course, Shar-e Rey is not the only place that children pick through trash and this is not the only dangerous job that children there are forced to do. In Tehran alone, nearly 5000 children are sorting trash, with 40% of them being the only worker in their family. All of them are at risk of infection and developing diseases like Hepatitis and AIDS.

In September, ISNA news agency found out that the “average age of garbage collectors is 12”, but kids as young as four are working out there for “10-20 hours a day” and that these kids “live in makeshift homes made of junk and have no bath”. They concluded that this can only be described as “modern slavery”.

Life for children has only gotten worse under the mullahs’ regime, with many being robbed of a future and forced to do exhausting and humiliating work, where the regime can still exploit these precious children to make money. Even the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS)-affiliated Mehr news agency reports that there is a mafia network that has grown around the garbage collector children.

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@iran_policy
#Iranian Children Are the Regime’s First Victims http://www.ncr-iran.org/en/news/157-human-rights/26815-iranian-children-are-the-regime-s-first-victims …
Social unrest is felt all across Iran. The economic situation has resulted in people getting poorer with more people falling into the absolute poverty category.#FreeIran #NoImpunity4Mullahs #IranRegimeChange

Iranian Children Are the Regime’s First Victims
We are a broad coalition of democratic Iranian organizations, groups, and personalities providing current Iran news and Iranian opposition news and statements. More news here.

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While back in March the state-run ILNA news agency wrote that the government won’t stop the child trash collectors because then the regime would be forced to pay higher wages to workers of legal age, who know their rights and can fight for them through legal channels.

Now, of course, the regime’s media hides much of the crisis, but it is clear that government institutions and officials are exploiting Iranian children to line their own pockets, no matter what damage it might do.

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