Child beggars on the country's streets, mostly non-Saudis, have now become a concern for national human rights activists who are trying to combat this growing social leprosy. The National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) said many government offices concerned with this problem of child beggars have been contacted to play their due roles in fighting this menace. These government offices need to work closely with relevant foreign embassies in the country, said Hussein Al-Sharief, general supervisor of the NSHR in Makkah region. Some of the foreign child beggars have been trafficked through vulnerable border areas, but the majority was born here, usually to illegal residents. A human rights team visited the children who were arrested begging on the streets in Makkah region to listen to their stories. ‘'They have been forced to beg to make money for other people,'' an NSHR official said. ‘'It is a hot file for the society now,'' he said, as the case is transparently discussed and communicated with relevant government departments on a regular basis. The case of child beggars is always included in the annual report of the NSHR, he said. The children on the street always fall victims to human traffickers who even intentionally disfigure them to improve their chances of earning an extra dime. One of the many young beggars is a girl Hajjar of African descent who was forced into this illegal profession. Her dirty conditions, clubfeet, and twisted legs were a contrast to the wide grin on her face. She slides on a short board around the feet of walkers on a sidewalk in south Jeddah begging for money or whatever she could get. On the other sidewalk, her sister Cinderella does the same thing, but with one extra job description: She takes the money from her sister to hand it over to an Arab woman at the end of the busy begging day. ‘'I have no other life. I have been brought up a beggar,'' Hajjar said. ‘'I use this board to move around,'' she said. ‘'My mother sends me everyday to the streets with our neighbor,'' she said. But Hajjar and her sister Cinderella are not the only little girls who give the cash they beg off from strangers to the woman. The children of their poor alley are also sent to the streets everyday to beg money and give it to the Arab woman, who closely watches the streets where the children beg. The children are severely punished if they refuse to follow orders from the woman, Hajjar said. “My mother doesn't even stop the woman from beating us. She even supports her,'' she added said as she was ready to hit the streets again looking for some cash from more strangers.
