In Western Europe, Poor Children Kept as Thieves

In Western Europe, Poor Children Kept as Thieves

Wed Sep 8, 2:52 PM ET

By Julia Damianova (Reuters)

VIENNA (Reuters) - The theft follows a simple pattern. A little girl
asks a customer in a shop for help reaching something on a shelf, and
while he or she is distracted another child steals a wallet or cash
from their pocket or bag.

The thieves are victims themselves, from a rising number of children
from poor eastern European countries smuggled into the wealthy West
and forced to steal.
"The number of children smuggled for theft is still on the rise across
Europe," Norbert Ceipek from Vienna's Juvenile Affairs Office told
Reuters.

Precise numbers are hard to come by. Austrian authorities estimate
that up to 250,000 children and teen-agers, most from Albania,
Bulgaria, Georgia, Moldova and Romania, are sent out daily by
organized criminal gangs to steal on the streets and in shops across
Europe. The European police agency Europol says the problem is part of
a wider pattern of human trafficking, mainly in women and children,
from the developing world and eastern Europe to the West for the sex
trade, forced labor and crime.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) in a report on
child trafficking in the European Union (news - web sites) found that
"most trafficked unaccompanied minors come from broken families or
families experiencing internal conflict as a consequence of high
unemployment, low income, social insecurity and high birth rates."
Some are sent to the West by parents who hope they will do better
there, while others run away to escape difficult homes, find refuge
after parents die or are jailed, or in pursuit of an idealized life,
the IOM said.

STEALING UNDER THREAT

In Vienna, the Juvenile Affairs Office said trafficked children are
under constant threat of violence. They cannot return to their shelter
in the evening without stealing a certain amount of money set by their
bosses. "Children are often forced to steal at least 300 euros ($366)
a day," Ceipek said. If they fail to meet the target, they suffer
severe punishment or can be forced into prostitution to make up the
missing money. "The children are not afraid of the Austrian police;
they fear only their supervisors," Ceipek said.

Austrian authorities apprehend about 300 foreign boys and girls every
year for theft, most of them around 13- or 14-years old. The career of
the young thieves ends usually by the age of 14 when they become
legally responsible and can be charged. Some stay on as supervisors
handling the new recruits and teaching them tricks of the trade. A
significant number, especially girls, make an often forced career move
to prostitution.

While child pickpockets are nothing new, Austrian authorities say they
became aware about four years ago that criminal gangs were bringing in
growing numbers of children to steal. The easing of visa requirements
for some eastern European countries has made it easier to smuggle them
into countries like Austria.

The Vienna Juvenile Affairs Office has created its own records system
for keeping track of foreign children caught stealing, and the archive
now has about 700 entries. The aim of the archive is to keep track of
the children despite the fact that they often change their location,
identity and appearance. By following the children's movements the
authorities can also catch up with their smugglers faster. Austrian
investigators arrested 49 alleged smugglers in six months with help
from information in the files. "The smugglers are the criminals, not
the children," Ceipak said. Once a child is detained and identified,
the Youth Affairs Office goes through the embassy to try to contact
the parents and return the child home.

Europol has also launched a project within the European Union to
collect and share intelligence on criminal networks involved in
trafficking children from eastern Europe to the West. Traffickers have
many methods of getting children across borders. One way of getting a
genuine passport is to pay cash to poor parents to obtain a passport
for their own child, but using a photo of a smuggled child instead of
the real one. Traffickers pay as much as 2,000 euros, a large sum for
a poor family. "But what actually happens is that another kid goes to
western Europe, engages in illegal practices and when arrested, enters
the crime register under the name of an innocent child who is well
behaved, attends school and has never left their home country," Ceipek
said.