Come Home, My Children

Xinjiang takes new initiatives to bring its children wandering in other provinces home

By WANG HAIRONG

A train from Beijing arrived at the railway station in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwest China, on May 2. Arkbel Usuf walked off, accompanied by staff from the region’s relief management center.

The 10-year-old is the first child brought back to Xinjiang after the regional government launched an initiative in late April to bring home all native Xinjiang children who are astray in other parts of the country.

Xinjiang is reportedly one of the largest sources of street children in China. The regional government has sent teams to search for vagrant children of Xinjiang origin in 19 provinces and municipalities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong, beginning April 23.

“We’ll work closely with these provinces and municipalities. We hope to bring the children back as soon as possible,” said Zhang Chunxian, Secretary of the Xinjiang Regional Committee of the Communist Party of China.

Arkbel Usuf was found by the police in Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang Province in the northeast, thousands of miles away from his home.

About two months ago, Arkbel Usuf was taken to Harbin by his uncle, who planned to open a meat-grilling stall there. But the business failed. When his uncle was about to return to Xinjiang with the boy by train, Arkbel Usuf got lost at the railway station. He was wandering on the streets, and was later found by the police and taken to a local relief station.

Since he didn’t know his home address,Arkbel Usuf was placed in an SOS children’s village in Xinjiang before his family was contacted.

A complex issue

Arkbel Usuf is lucky among Xinjiang children living on the streets in other parts of China,some of whom survive by stealing or begging.

There might be about 30,000 to 50,000 Xinjiang children wandering in other parts of China, according to research by the Institute of Sociology of the Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences.

This number is significantly higher than that 10 years ago, which was estimated at between 3,000 and 6,000.

These children used to stay in metropolitan cities such as Beijing, Shanghai,and Guangzhou and Shenzhen in southern Guangdong Province, whereas now, they have spread into other cities in east and central China, according to the research.

The problem of street children is a very complex challenge worldwide, said Dou Yupei,Vice Minister of Civil Affairs, at a news conference held in Beijing in early March.

Dou said the problem is caused by a number of factors. The primary causes are poverty and family breakdowns due to divorce between parents or imprisonment of a parent.

The other factor is that some parents have extremely high expectations on their children,and stressed-out children may become truant or drop out of school. Some children with poor grades get looked down upon and leave home.

Moreover, there are also human traffickers who coerce children to leave home to beg or engage in criminal activities.

Street children in Chinese cities are primarily from economically underdeveloped rural areas in Sichuan, Henan and Anhui provinces and Xinjiang, according to people familiar with the situation.

A report from the Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences says an overwhelming majority of Xinjiang children living on the streets in other parts of China are ethnic minority children from poor rural areas in south Xinjiang’s Kashi,Hotan and Aksu. Most of them are boys aged 6-15.

GOING HOME: Arkbel Usuf, a Xinjiang boy,got lost in Heilongjiang Province thousands of miles away from his home. He returned to Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region with help from the regional government,on May 2

More than 90 percent of street children from Xinjiang have been tempted and coerced away from home, and most trafficked children are controlled by traffickers to engage in illegal activities, says the report.

Some Xinjiang children have been lured to more prosperous parts by the prospect of a better life there, and some impoverished parents are acquiescent to their children being taken away to steal and beg and are paid for “lending” their children, reports Beijingbased Outlook magazine.

Police officers say children coerced into gangs and used for street crime usually pickpocket in crowded places such as bus stations and shopping areas. Adult gang leaders often wait nearby. Once a victim catches a child,the gang leader appears and takes the child away by threatening or beating the victim.

China’s Criminal Law stipulates that juvenile offenders under 14 are exempt from criminal punishment, yet they should be disciplined by their parents or put in government-run facilities for reformatory education.

Many street children from Xinjiang caught for stealing often do not speak Mandarin or are too young to remember their family’s contact information, so it is difficult for police authorities to find their real parents. These children are often picked up by gang leaders who may pose as their family members, and return to the streets soon after being released.

Relief efforts

A national relief system aimed at helping vagrants, both adults and children, was set up in August 2003 as the Measures for Assisting Vagrants and Beggars With No Means of Support in Cities promulgated by the State Council went into force.

Under the system, eligible vagrants can apply and receive free board and lodging at relief stations and get treated for medical emergencies. Adults can stay for up to 10 days and can voluntarily leave at any time,whereas minor residents should get permission from the relief stations before leaving.

A relief station will inform its minor residents’ family members to pick them up.For minor residents whose family members refuse to receive them, the local civil affairs department overseeing the relief station shall inform its counterparts in the minor residents’ hometowns to bring them back and send them to their family members.

Minor residents whose family members cannot be found shall be placed under care by the civil affairs departments of their hometowns,and those whose hometowns also cannot be identified shall be attended by the governments of the localities where they are found.

In 2006, the government started to build protection centers for street children. So far more than 1,400 relief stations and 310 plus street children protection centers had been set up. In the next five years, more such centers will be built, said Dou.

The centers are designed to get vagrant children off the streets, and the children are welcome to stay there until they are reunited with their parents, said Gao Yueling, head of the Social Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

At the centers, residents will also receive free general education and vocational training to prepare them for adult life, Gao said.

Xinjiang used to help about 3,000 street children every year, most of whom were brought back from other parts of the country,said Sun Haiyu, an official with Xinjiang’s Civil Affairs Department.

BEING CARED FOR: A teacher instructs minor residents in a relief station for vagrants and beggers in Lanzhou, Gansu Province, on January 4, 2010

Reintegration

But researchers with the Institute of Sociology of the Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences estimated as many as 60-70 percent of the street children brought back to Xinjiang in previous years soon returned to the streets in other provinces.

Stealing and robbing in places outside of Xinjiang has become part of the lifestyle for some street children; after they were sent home,they could no longer get used to a poor, but normal life in their hometowns, said Li Xiaoxia, a researcher with the Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences.

Putting street children under alternative care involves transferring of legal custody over children. Chinese laws such as the General Principles of Civil Law and the Law on Protection of Minors stipulate the court can revoke the custody of any parent and other guardians for abusing or neglecting a child.

Yet so far, court rulings revoking the custody of a child’s guardian are very rare,Tong Lihua, Director of the Minor Protection Law Committee of the All China Lawyer’s Association, recently told Beijing Evening News.

“It is because ambiguities about who is eligible to apply for the termination of the custody over a child and who should raise the child after the custody is revoked,” Tong said.

Dou said the problem of street children should be tackled at their roots. The measures Dou mentioned include strengthening social security and social relief systems to ensure children’s basic living standards and beefing up efforts in cracking down on human trafficking and other related crimes should be beefed up.

For parents failing to fulfill their roles,their custody should be terminated if necessary to protect children’s rights, Dou said.

Shelters have been built for street children to be put in alternative care. In the past five years, the Central Government has built 15 shelters, which can accommodate more than 1,500 vagrant children in total, in Kashi,Hotan and Aksu, said Sun.

Xinjiang’s new initiative focuses on building more shelters and providing vocational education to prevent vagabond children from returning to the streets.

This year, Xinjiang plans to spend 50 million yuan ($7.70 million) on a training center for vagrant children. Minors who are mentally healthy and willing to learn can receive free education and training, said Xinhua News Agency. ■