Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Dushanbe (Agenzia Fides) - A growing number of orphans and Tajik street children are victims of Islamic extremist groups, who recruit them to grow according to radical ideologies and make them small, modern terrorists. This is the complaint non-governmental organizations, operating locally, engaged in recovering and in helping children, make to Fides.
In Tajikistan, according to official figures, about 35% of the total population (over 7 million inhabitants) is under 14 years of age. NGOs in Tajikistan report that more than 9,000 among children and teens live on the streets, 5,000 of them in the capital Dushanbe, subjected to violence, disease, prostitution, drug dealing and to becoming crime laborers. Now another serious threat to Tajik children is added: they are in the sights of Islamic extremist groups. The reception camps promoted by the government are not sufficient and also for NGOs and religious communities, handling this situation, is very difficult. In 2003 the Catholic Church (which in the country has a small "Missio sui iuris") opened a center in Dushanbe and a soup kitchen for street children and seeks to make its contribution to their growth and education.
Once they reach legal age, young people followed by the public structures are on "the street" again as they lose their right to social public assistance. Their youth condition of poverty becomes the ground on which to thrive, and the calls of terrorist groups, that promise a better life, more comfort and well-being, are often successful, and offer them, then, the moral reasons "to commit oneself to a cause." In an attempt to control corruption, the Tajik government has launched a prevention program based on the training of young people.
The population of Tajikistan –is among the poorest of the former Soviet Union – it is made up of 95% of Muslims. According to observers, this is where Islamic extremism is reorganizing itself: the Rasht Valley, about two hundred kilometers from the capital and close to the Afghan border, is a remote area of eastern Tajikistan, dominated by mountains over 7,000 meters and considered a stronghold of radical Islamic groups. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 28/05/2011)
