Child rights advocate warns rise in organised crime kid recruitment

nited Nations child rights expert Faith Marshall-Harris on Monday called for a major intervention to address the rise in organised crime, which has seen an increase in the recruitment of children.

 

Marshall-Harris told Barbados TODAY that based on empirical data she has been collecting from around the Caribbean and Latin America, there is a worrying trend of gang leaders targeting younger recruits to smuggle drugs, transport guns, and even commit murder.

 

Since the issue is not unique to Barbados, Marshall-Harris suggested that authorities should not only look inward to develop strategies to combat the uptick in gun crime but should also consider adopting some of the crime-fighting tactics used in neighbouring jurisdictions and implement a mixed approach.

 

Her comments follow a statement by the director of the Criminal Justice Research and Planning Unit, Cheryl Willoughby, who revealed over the weekend that the average age of people accused of murder over the past six months was 17 to 18. Last year, the average age of individuals involved in gun-related murders was 16.

 

Noting that she was compiling data from the Caribbean and Latin America to present a report later this month, Marshall-Harris said: “It’s a trend in the Caribbean; violence, as it relates to gangs and so on, seems to be spreading throughout our region fairly rapidly. And as such, younger persons under the age of 18 who qualify under the rights of a child, are swept up in that entire situation. It is very unfortunate, and we are hoping that the authorities can look at the data, deal with it, and see what can be done to avert the involvement of young persons.”

 

Regarding Latin America, she mentioned that people were being recruited at much younger ages. She added that recruiters tend to target boys and young men, assuming that due to their youth, they may go undetected if they engage in criminal acts.

 

“I must tell you that very often they are used as a front because it is the perception in gangs that if you get the younger person to commit whatever crime, they will get off lightly. So very young children and young people are really used as the couriers of drugs and to carry guns from one spot to another because, firstly, law enforcement will not necessarily suspect a very young person, and secondly, they are sometimes used by those criminal gangs because they say that they will attract a lighter sentence.”

 

The child rights expert highlighted that the recruitment of boys and young men is a complex social problem and called for interventions to divert young people from taking an interest in gangs.

 

“When extrapolating information from the data, you realise that very often it is an activity taking place and in movements that are bigger than them, and they are swept up in it. Many of them are drawn in because they leave school severely underqualified. They leave school without any meaningful or gainful occupation. They have been recruited into these activities because sometimes it’s a way of livelihood and survival. So we have to tackle it as a social development issue . . . . Dealing with this at the individual level isn’t going to help [Barbados]; we are going to have to examine what the societal trends are [regionally],” she said.

 

She continued: “I think what also has to be studied is if being poorly educated is [a contributing factor] because the boys and young men are underperforming in the educational system. They’re coming out of the educational system with very few skills for the labour market, and the only place where they’re being actively recruited is in criminal gangs. I am not saying it’s the only area, but that is an area that attracts them. What we need to do is to see how we can find a way of dealing with those gaps. How can we divert them from that trend? But at the moment, if that is, to them, the only way they’re going to survive and thrive, then that is where they are going to go.”

 

Marshall-Harris highlighted the case of a boy she helped migrate to Barbados a few years ago as an example of how easily youngsters are drawn to criminal gangs.

 

She said the boy came to Barbados at age 13 and lacked parental support. He later became involved in a gang, which provided him with food and a means of living. He is now a suspect in a gun-related murder that occurred in September.

 

Education should be a top priority in diversion initiatives, as it would prepare young men for the world of work and help them attain employment, Marshall-Harris added.

sheriabrathwaite@barbadostoday.bb