Child rights advocate says more runaway teens escape home troubles

An alarming number of mothers have been putting their teenaged children on the streets as home environments became hostile during the unfolding months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The revelation was made this afternoon by newly-elected Vice-Chair of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) Barbadian Faith Marshall-Harris.

In an interview with Barbados TODAY, Marshall-Harris, who will serve in that position for the next two years, said this troubling development came to light as a result of a helpline for children, which she had established to give them a voice.

Marshall-Harris, who is a legal consultant and former juvenile court magistrate, disclosed that children were also leaving home in their numbers and did not want to return because of the bad treatment meted out to them by their parents.

She said that while hampers, food and school equipment were distributed during the early stages of the pandemic, the main activity of the Sandy Lane Charitable Trust-funded Help Line eventually became one of advocacy which revealed some problems being experienced by adolescents.

The Vice Chair said the treatment of adolescents has now become one of her specialty areas of concern.

“I listened and got a lot of Whatsapp messages from, especially 16, 17-year-old girls. Our age limit in terms of the committee is from birth to 18 years…and that age group 14, 15, 16, 17…they were in a lot of trouble during the pandemic because they were clashing quite a lot with adults in the space at home,” she stated.

“In other words, a lot of the difficulties that existed in families came into sharp focus and very often the adolescents were the ones who bore the brunt of a certain amount of hostility,” the child champion explained.

Noting that a lot of homes in Barbados are overcrowded, Marshall-Harris explained the residents in these households compete for a tiny space resulting in inevitable clashes.

“I think the adolescents in the family structure did not fare well. They were exhibiting their normal challenging behavior, questioning things, wanting to do things their way and expressing what in fact is a natural evolution for them. But clearly, adults would not take kindly to that even in normal times, it became worse,” she added.

“So I found myself grappling with issues where a lot of adolescents were actually leaving home and not wanting to go back. I also found the opposite was true. I got a lot of calls with that age group being put out of homes. In fact, I had to intervene on a number of occasions to explain to authorities that a 16-year-old may not be ejected from a home and told ‘don’t come back here.’  A 16-year old has a right to shelter,” declared the UN official.

She said whereas a 16-year-old may be given a say in where he or she wants to live, once they chose to remain in the home, they have a right to be there because they are still a minor.

Marshall-Harris said many people did not seem to understand that.

“That was quite alarming to me…especially alarming was the number of parents, particularly mothers, that were quite willing to put a 16-year-old girl on the street. That was very difficult to understand but it was happening. And so we had to deal with a lot of that,” the Vice Chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child told Barbados TODAY.

(emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb)