Punished for being poor? Mexico child labor case makes poverty a crime, critics say
AUGUST 25, 2020 / 9:37 AM / UPDATED 26 MINUTES AGO
Christine Murray
4 MIN READ
MEXICO CITY (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The arrest of three Mexican women accused of trafficking more than 20 children from within their extended family has been criticized by rights activists, who say they are being punished for being poor.
Prosecutors found the malnourished children during a raid last month on a house in Chiapas, the country’s poorest state, and said they were being forced by their relatives to hawk souvenirs and other trinkets in the streets.
But campaigners and family members reject the trafficking charges, saying the three indigenous women - who are mothers to some of the children - simply took the youngsters to work with them occasionally, as many low-income parents do in Mexico.
“Lots of families... go out selling with their daughters and sons because there isn’t anywhere to leave them,” said Jennifer Haza, director of Chiapas children’s rights nonprofit Melel Xojobal.
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More than three quarters of people live in poverty in Chiapas, a southern state bordering Guatemala.
Thousands of children, including some of those found in the raid, do not have birth certificates or go to school, Haza said.
More:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mexico-trafficking/punished-for-being-poor-mexico-child-labor-case-makes-poverty-a-crime-critics-say-idUSKBN25L1TS?rpc=401&