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Street children as young as five are being caged in brutal detention centres alongside adult criminals in a cynical drive to smarten up the Philippines capital ahead of a visit by Pope Francis this week.
Hundreds of boys and girls have been rounded up from doorways and roadsides by police and officials and put behind bars in recent weeks to make the poverty-racked city more presentable when Pope Francis arrives tomorrow, a MailOnline investigation has found.
In a blatant abuse of the country's own child protection laws, the terrified children are locked up in filthy detention centres where they sleep on concrete floors and where many of them are beaten or abused by older inmates and adult prisoners and, in some cases, starved and chained
MailOnline found dozens of street children locked up in appalling conditions alongside adult criminals in Manila, where a senior official admitted there had been an intensive round-up by police and government workers to make sure they are not seen by Pope Francis.
We gained rare access to a detention centre by accompanying Nobel Peace Prize-nominated Irish missionary Father Shay Cullen, 71, as he freed a boy aged around seven and took him to his Preda Foundation shelter for children 100 miles away in Subic Bay.
PASAY aims to remove children working for begging syndicates in the streets before the Pope’s visit later this month, a city official said Friday.
Pasay Social Welfare Department head Rosalinda Orobia told the ManilaStandard the move would prevent the syndicates from taking advantage of the papal visit.
“They know the Pope cares about poor kids, and they will take advantage of that,” Orobia said of the syndicates.
Orobia said the city government has been conducting regular operations to weed out syndicates from legitimate groups providing shelter to children who were abandoned by their parents and were begging in the streets.
originally posted by: burdman30ott6
a reply to: Philippines
manilastandardtoday.com...
PASAY aims to remove children working for begging syndicates in the streets before the Pope’s visit later this month, a city official said Friday.
Pasay Social Welfare Department head Rosalinda Orobia told the ManilaStandard the move would prevent the syndicates from taking advantage of the papal visit.
“They know the Pope cares about poor kids, and they will take advantage of that,” Orobia said of the syndicates.
Orobia said the city government has been conducting regular operations to weed out syndicates from legitimate groups providing shelter to children who were abandoned by their parents and were begging in the streets.
Is a "begging syndicate" exactly what it sounds like? An organized criminal group that essentially "pimps" the poor? There seem to be a lot of wrinkles on both sides here...
originally posted by: Domo1
I believe this Pope would condemn this sort of thing in a heartbeat.
If this news is true, I'm betting he is the kind of man that will be deeply troubled and speak out against this sort of treatment. [/url]
At least 10 people were killed when a young girl, thought to be aged 10, blew herself up at a crowded market in the northeast Nigerian city of Maiduguri, the Red Cross and vigilantes said.