Reporting by PMOI/MEK
Iran, October 20, 2019—The conditions of children searching in the trash in Iran under the mullahs’ regime is one of the most heartbreaking social issues, mainly resulting from unbridled theft and corruption riddling this entire country.
Children searching the trash in Iran is such a painstaking subject that the regime’s own media outlets and so-called social experts in the mullahs’ regime are using terms such as “New Slavery” for this atrocity. These children are literally roaming the streets in search of anything to help them survive, either finding something to eat in trash canisters or maybe gathering various items to sell.
One member of the regime’s own Majlis (parliament) says around 15,000 people are roaming the streets and the trash in the city of Tehran, the country’s capital. 5,000 of them are children, and 40 percent of whom – who are between the ages of 10 and 15 – are the only breadwinners of their families.
As the new school year begins in #Iran, millions of children are deprived of an education due to the poverty imposed by the mullahs' regime.#40YearsOfFailurehttps://t.co/DMa1gRq4K1
— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) September 26, 2019
“Young girls who are working and searching trash sites are even more vulnerable than the boys. They are facing more illnesses. Their hair is longer, and lice is seen all over their bodies… They lack adequate water for hygiene purposes, and the water they do have available is contaminated,” according to the regime’s own media outlets.
Lack of vitamins, iron, lice problems, skin diseases, ear infections, chronic cases of malnutrition, Hepatitis A and AIDS are only a few of the problems these children are forced to endure.
In the city of Karaj, west of Tehran, 60 different trash sites where these children are seen were evaluated. The results were catastrophic. Four-to-12-year-old children were found searching the trash. Many were living in slums built from trash. There are no restrooms or showers for these children, and the spread of disease and fighting off mice and other rodents are just a few of this study’s result. These children are seen searching the trash from 10.5 to 20 hours a day.
#Iran under the mullahs' regime
A mother & her three children in search of food…#40YearsOfFailurepic.twitter.com/z7AUHa80Qj
— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) May 20, 2019
Another aspect of this catastrophe in Iran under the mullahs’ regime is the mafia network that is taking advantage of these defenseless children.
One Majlis member says a large percentage of the produced trash in the capital is under the control of this very mafia. The “Trash Mafia” takes advantage of children and women who have bad husbands or no caretaker at all. At nights, they are seen rounding up most of the city’s trash to search them for sellable goods.
“In 2018, Tehran’s dry trash created a financial profit of 26 trillion rials (around $620 million). Thirty percent of this share belongs to the municipality and the contractors rallying up this trash take home the main 70 percent share,” one regime expert said.
#Iran's children are the first victims of the regime's plundering & atrocities.https://t.co/BueOpX4JYX
— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) November 12, 2018
There are many negative aspects in this regard, involving murder, cutting off ears and some mafia members are even escorted by private bodyguards.
“Today, the legislative institutions do not understand the conditions of these people roaming the trash sites. Due to the political deals made behind the scenes, no one is actually seeking any solution for these people,” he added.
Another Majlis member, who is supposedly deputy chair of a faction focused on preventing social damages, acknowledged the power enjoyed by the “Trash Mafia” in Iran.
“Despite all the efforts made by the health institutions and other governmental bodies in regard to improving the conditions of child laborers, they never reach any tangible results because the mafia is far more powerful than they are,” he added.
