A member of the Tehran City Council has raised alarming concerns about the exploitation of children in municipal service works. According to Nasser Amani, municipal contractors are employing children, often the offspring of foreign nationals, who lack proper identification and bank cards. As a result, these children are denied fair wages and insurance coverage.
In a report by Khabar Online, Amani expressed his dismay during his neighborhood visits, where he witnessed firsthand the illegal employment of young children, some as young as 13 or 14 years old, by municipal contractors. He emphasized that such employment practices are not only unethical but also illegal. The council member further noted that these children face delayed payments, sometimes receiving their wages only after several months.
Amani has repeatedly brought this issue to the attention of the municipality, highlighting the illegal exploitation of children by contractors and the numerous challenges these minors face. Despite the municipality’s promises to address the problem, little progress has been made. Tawakolizadeh, the Assistant of Community Affairs for Tehran Municipality, had previously assured that children would be excluded from municipal services, vowing to prevent further abuse. However, this promise remains unfulfilled.
Amani also shed light on the reasons behind Iranian workers’ reluctance to work in municipal services, attributing it to low wages, delayed payments, lack of insurance, and the physically demanding nature of the job. He pointed out that while municipal managers claim that workers are paid salaries ranging from 12 to 13 million tomans, investigations have revealed that these amounts are rarely disbursed. Instead, some workers, particularly children, receive as little as 4 to 7 million tomans.
Experts have further revealed that the children involved in garbage collection are often controlled by a “child mafia network” that operates in collaboration with city contractors. This network is reportedly run by the very contractor companies licensed by the municipality for urban cleaning and waste recycling. The same companies are accused of creating a vast network of corruption and rent-seeking practices.
In a separate report by the state-run news agency ILNA, legal expert Askar Hashmi highlighted that the profits from collected waste are funneled into the pockets of special interest groups and profit-seeking individuals. He also noted that smuggling gangs exploit these children, particularly those from foreign countries, for their own gain.
The increasing poverty, marginalization, and administrative corruption within government agencies have exacerbated the phenomenon of child garbage collectors in recent years. A report by the state-run daily Donya-e Eghtesad in December 2023 revealed that more than seven thousand garbage collectors are active in Tehran, generating an annual turnover of three and a half billion tomans from waste collection. In a 2019 report, the state-run daily Farhikhtegan described a “strange colony of garbage collectors” and disclosed that the massive profits from the “300 trillion tomans garbage mafia” ultimately benefit the upper echelons of society.
The exploitation of children in Tehran’s municipal services is a grave issue that demands immediate attention and action from relevant authorities. Without meaningful intervention, the cycle of poverty, corruption, and exploitation will only continue to worsen.
Source » irannewsupdate