- Despite the country's abundant oil revenues and the lift of the economic embargo after the fall of the regime, child labor not only remains in Iraq but is continues to increase.
Since the 1990s scores of young children walk between cars as traffic slows to sell simple items, or work in industrial jobs that require strong physical effort, like car maintenance or blacksmiths shops.

The ages of most these children range between six to 15 years, and can be found in most parts of the country either working or, to a lesser extent, begging.

An official from the Social Welfare Commission and member of Salahaddin Provincial Council, Mouhammed Farhan, told AKnews that there are many reasons behind the spread of child employment.

"The first is the financial impoverishment that pushes parents to put their children to work," he said. "Then comes the loss of one of the parents, especially the father.
Or the failure of the children at school, especially in the primary stages, who then leave education.

"Another reason behind the children dropping out of schools is that many people believe that those who own certificates of education have not found work. Hence they prefer that their children work and learn a profession early to guarantee his living in the future."

Farhan thinks the solutions are easy to think of and even to implement: "It is not difficult for the federal government to find effective solutions to reduce this phenomenon.

"It can create means of entertainment that will provide jobs for the largest possible number of people. They can also allocate a monthly salary for school students that will allow them to stop working and encourage them to continue studying.

"The government must appoint social workers in schools especially the elementary schools and communicate with students and explain to them the benefit of studying and obtaining a certificate.

"There is also a need to set up educational seminars for parents so that they don't force their children to work and provide them with a supportive atmosphere."

Farhan emphasized on the need for the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs and the Ministry of Human Rights to follow this issue closely in order to eliminate the problem with the help the Iraqi Council of Representatives.

In the mud neighborhoods of Samarra - one of the largest cities in Salahaddin province, 185 km north of Baghdad - is Sarah Jaseem, an eight-year-old child who sells food in the morning hours while her peers went to school.

The small and dilapidated shop, that can hardly fit its small owner, is the only source of income for this child and her family that includes six other children.

"I work to help my poor family. I didn't enter the school and play like the other children," she told AKnews.
Sarah is one of more than 10,000 working children in the province of Salahaddin, according to official statistics from the province's social welfare committee.

Journalist Mohamed Ezzat thinks this is "shameful in a rich country like Iraq with its huge resources to find working children." She added that some of the "billions of the oil revenues should be invested in helping the children in the country.

"This phenomenon is not new but it is increasing day after day because of the tragedies of war and the ravages of the country's economic and security tensions."

According to recent studies on working children by civil society organizations, young children are at risk of not growing normally because their work is not suitable to their ages.

Faten al-Smurrai, a humanitarian activist and member of the Iraqi Family Organization, which specializes in women and children affairs, told AKnews:

"According to a study conducted by the organization and in collaboration with medical staff, most of the children who work in occupations that don't fit their ages are at risk of facing atrophied growth at puberty, as well as physical illnesses and disabilities that increase with the passage of time."

But the risks to children are not just limited to the physical, as Smurrai explains:

"The defect will not only be in the growth and exposition to diseases and disabilities, but the child will be raised in a state of violence and cruelty that creates abnormal people."