Because
of extreme poverty, families are often forced to make their children work.
They are generally employed in construction, battery recycling, road transport,
car repair shops, and tobacco factories.
Uneducated,
these children grow up in miserable conditions: long work hours, low salary, no
food, etc. Additionally, they face risks associated with prostitution, discrimination, abuse,
etc.
Bangladesh
is also confronted with the situation of young boy-jockeys. They are sent to
the middle east where they are employed in camel races as jockeys. Their diet
is often restricted so that they don’t gain weight. Additionally, they are
often subjected to physical and sexual abuse.
Juvenile Justice
In
Bangladesh, juvenile offenders are frequently mistreated while in custody.
What’s more, there are juvenile courts, but often children are sentenced by an
ordinary court. Likewise, detention centers for juvenile offenders have
been developed, but children are usually imprisoned with adults.
Sentences
can be extremely harsh in Bangladesh. In fact, some children less than 15 years
old have been sentenced to life in prison and others, less than 18, have been
sentenced to death.
The
committee of the Rights of the Child is very concerned about these sentences
and recommends that the State forbid the death penalty or life in prison for
youth, that it raise the age of criminal liability to 12, and that justice for
minors conform to the International Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Child Trafficking
Children
from poor Bangladeshi communities have a high risk of being sold by their
parents, who imagine the migration beneficial: secure wages, better living
conditions, etc. Yet the reality is anything but: children are exploited, girls
in particular are at first employed as domestic servants, then as prostitutes.
In
many cases, children who are under under the influence of traffickers live
and work in the streets.
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