By BADEA ABU AL-NAJA | ARAB NEWS

MAKKAH: The practice of forcing children to beg and hawk goods is continuing unabated in the Kingdom despite the efforts of authorities to put an end to it.

Child slavery rings have continued to evade the authorities, helped in no small part by parents who want to make money at the expense of their children’s innocence.

Arab News talked to a number of child abuse victims who were rescued by the authorities and are waiting to have their cases settled.

Bilal Osman, a 10-year-old Nigerian from the Hausa tribe, said he was living with his parents in Madinah until the last Haj season when an uncle wanted the child to stay with him in Makkah. “I never thought I would be separated from my parents, who finally gave in to my uncle,” he said.

Osman said when he came to Makkah, his uncle asked him to beg inside the Grand Mosque from early morning until after Dhuhr prayer. “I usually made between SR45 and SR50 every day. I would take this amount to my uncle at his home in the Al-Mansour district,” he said.

Osman said his uncle told him to tell the police that he was Saudi if he was ever caught. “I was caught by the anti-beggary police. I told them I was Saudi but they discovered my true identity and took me to a child foster home,” he said.

Osman said he used to love his parents dearly but now he hates them. He said he was happy in the foster home because he was well fed and had made new friends.