THE NUMBER of children begging in Dublin is on the increase with 966 sightings in 2009, a 9 per cent increase on the previous year, a leading NGO has warned.
Roma and Traveller children are the two biggest groups involved in begging. There are also a small number of homeless children begging, according to the Leanbh service of the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.
Annual figures released today show Leanbh volunteers spent 1,120 hours engaging with children on the streets last year. They made 966 sightings of child begging, up from 887 in the previous annual report from the service.
The numbers have fallen considerably since the establishment of Leanbh in 1997-98 when the NGO made 2,872 sightings of child begging on the streets. But with the increase in the number of Roma living in Ireland in recent years and the recession there is concern that child begging is rising.
Adriana Fechete, Leanbh manager, said “seasonal begging” seems to be increasing, probably due to the economic downturn.
“Coming up to Christmas and the start of the school year is a difficult time for many families, who come under financial stress. Begging is often the only way they see to make money,” she said. Leanbh, which was established to address the issue of child begging in 1997, works with the most vulnerable children, young people and parents from minority ethnic groups. It tries to direct children away from begging and into school. It provides mentoring help to parents in an effort to impress on them the unacceptability of taking children out to beg.
Ms Fechete said many mothers continued to bring their babies and toddlers out begging with them. “Sometimes they feel their babies are better off with them on the streets because there is no one to look after them at home.
“Others say it is easier to get money with a baby,” she said.
Begging was dangerous because children were exposed to bad weather, drugs, petty crime and prostitution. “There is a risk because these children are very vulnerable. They are easy victims,” she said.
Parents can be prosecuted under the Children’s Act 2001 for allowing their children to beg. But in reality the parents needed support to try to change their own behaviour. There just were not enough services, she added.
Leanbh had not come across evidence of children being trafficked into the country to beg by organised gangs, she said.