Yemeni parliamentarian: 3500 smuggled children were restored back in 2003

The Yemeni parliamentarian Mansour al-Zandani said that the phenomenon of smuggling Yemeni children to Saudi Arabia and other countries has become a dominant issue at the level of the Yemeni public and also the parliament and the government in Yemen, alike.

He disclosed he had got official information from three ministries ( the Interior, social affairs and labor and human rights ) saying that the Yemeni authorities brought back home 3500 children of both sexes after they were smuggled into the Saudi territories during 2003. He said that males among those children are 85% and female 15% and they are aging between 6 and 12 year old.

He indicated that the information he got showed that those children were smuggled for begging in Saudi Arabia and in certain cases smuggling gangs agree with the parents of those children. He considered that this is a grave phenomenon, threatening the future of the Yemeni child and create an imbalance in the social structure of the country.

Al-Zandani added he asked the parliament and the government to strongly challenge the phenomenon of smuggling children and finding solutions and actual treatment to eliminate it.

The Yemeni parliamentarian also indicated that the authorities are working, generally, to fighting drug trafficking, prevention of weapons smuggling or criminals entry to the Yemeni territories. He recommended that the first step among all those is to prevent the crime of smuggling children in Yemen because this phenomenon, when escalated will gravely increase social ills in the future.