Cairo (dpa) – Fourteen-year-old Mohamed fled his abusive family in the southern Egyptian city of Minya and moved to Cairo's Tahrir Square after last year's political revolution, hoping to find safety and work. “My father and brothers used to beat me so I left them and came to Tahrir,” said Mohamed, whose head is bandaged after he sustained a stone wound during clashes last month between police and protesters. “I felt safe with the protesters and people were talking to me,” said Mohamed. He is one of thousands of homeless children, who beg and sell matches and chewing gums on the streets of Cairo. “When I was hit, somebody took me to the field hospital, and I got stitches.” Egyptian children's rights groups say Cairo's street children are being manipulated by thugs, who incite them to take part in, at times deadly, political protests, and are criminalized by government institutions, which fail to protect them and get them off the streets. At least two children were killed, 10 were wounded and 73 were detained in clashes in Cairo over one week alone in December, they say. “Instead of being treated as victims, who were sometimes recklessly manipulated by thugs to get involved in clashes, the kids are stigmatized as criminals,” said Samah Hussein, who runs a shelter for street children in Cairo. “With neither parents nor a strong lobby to protect them, street children are exploited by society and governmental institutions,” she added. Hussein had hoped that the revolution that ousted President Hosni Mubarak in January would raise more awareness about the plight of street children in the capital, whose number the state-run National Council for Childhood and Motherhood (NCCM) puts at 5,000. This figure has been challenged by local and international groups, who say the real number is in the tens of thousands. Egypt has been ruled by a military council since February 2011. The council has resisted calls by protesters that it hand over power to a civilian government, a position which three months ago sparked deadly clashes between police and activists. “Street kids are the weakest in society,” said Somaya al-Alfy of the NCCM. “They are defenseless and that makes them an easy scapegoat for all sides: the military council, protesters and the media,” she added. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) says street children have been at the frontline of the protests since last year's uprising, when several minors were killed in clashes. Philippe Duamelle, a UNICEF representative, called on the government in a statement last month “to fully respect the rights of children,” adding that the number of children killed, injured and detained had reached “alarming levels. UNICEF child protection specialist Nadra Zaki said children detained during clashes were sent to adult prisons, which lack the resources to rehabilitate them. Zaki said: “These kids come from broken homes where they are deprived of love. When they go to Tahrir Square they feel important, – maybe for the first time in their lives.” BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/gjlo4 Tags: Children, MOI, Police, Protests, SCAF Section: Egypt, Features, Human Rights, Latest News
