575,000 Iraqi children now working instead of going to school
Child labour, Children in conflicts, Education in emergencies
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Boys drawing at a school on Baharka camp for internally displaced people on the outskirts of Erbil Picture: UNICEF/Yar
More than half a million Iraqi children are estimated to be at work rather than at school as violence and displacement hurt the income of millions of families, according to the United Nations childrens鶹APP agency .
The number of children currently working, more than575,000, has doubled since 1990 鶹APP the year when Iraq attackedKuwait, setting off a chain of events that led to the 2003United States-led invasion and the sectarian strife that continues tothis day.
鶹APPI used to go to school and work here for half a day with alow salary,鶹APP 12-year-old Ali Hussien Khudhair, who works theangle grinder in a blacksmith鶹APPs shop in Baghdad, said.
鶹APPI quit school and started working full time here and he(the owner) gives me full wages,鶹APP he told Reuters TV.
UNICEF said since the beginning of 2014, almost 10%of Iraqi children 鶹APP more than 1.5 million 鶹APP have been forced toflee their homes because of violence. In 2014, the Islamic Stategroup took control of large areas in northern and western Iraq.
A third grade class at the Baharka schoolPicture: UNICEF/Yar
Nearly one in five schools is closed due to conflict andalmost 3.5 million children of school-age are missing out on aneducation, UNICEF said in a report on June 30.
In total, at least 3.6 million children in Iraq are at riskof death, serious injury, sexual violence, abduction andrecruitment into armed groups, an increase of 1.3 million sincethe past 18 months, according to UNICEF.
鶹APPI wish to go back to school and play with my friends,鶹APPKhudhair said. 鶹APPI would be glad to go back and learn to readand write; I will be ashamed to have to say that I can鶹APPt readwhen I grow up.鶹APP
About 4.7 million Iraqi children need humanitarian aid,while many families now face deteriorating conditions followingmilitary operations against Islamic State, according to UNICEF.
鶹APPI鶹APPm working and learning the craft, it鶹APPs better thanschool. What rights do graduates have? They are selling water onstreets,鶹APP 14-year-old Karrar Jaffar, who works in acar mechanic鶹APPs shop, said.
鶹APPThe government does nothing. It鶹APPs better for me to learn acraft,鶹APP he said, his hands smeared with brake fluid.
The , the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, covers humanitarian news, women鶹APPs rights, corruption and climate change.
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