‘Ministry looking into issue of boy caught on video selling magazines in cold weather’

AMMAN — A video of a child selling magazines in the cold weather was widely circulated this week on social media websites, and the government said Wednesday it is looking into his situation.

In the video (https://www.youtube.com watch?v=zdYNXqbp

HZI), captured by Faris Khalifah, the boy says he is from Kamaliyeh area near Amman’s Sweileh and is selling magazines, each for JD1, to be able to buy kerosene for his family.

He also says that his father divorced his mother and now he and his siblings live with her in a rented apartment.

In the video, Khalifah offers the child JD5 without taking any magazines, but the boy refuses charity and forcibly puts five magazines in Khalifah’s vehicle while saying that he is in a hurry because his feet are cold and he wants to sell all the magazines to go home.

The Social Development Ministry on Wednesday issued a statement urging the public to help locate the boy, Spokesperson Fawaz Ratrout told The Jordan Times over the phone.

He said that after half-an-hour of issuing the announcement, a citizen called and told the ministry he saw the boy at a cafe in west Amman.

Ministry personnel found the boy, whom Fawaz refused to reveal any information about, except that he is in a good condition and that the ministry is studying his situation.

According to the International Labour Organisation, the Kingdom in 2011 adopted a National Framework to Combat Child Labour to improve the nation’s legislative environment.

This framework lays out the various roles and responsibilities of ministries to identify child labourers, remove them from work, and provide them with appropriate education and social services.

Jordan also ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991, which obligates governments to protect children from work that is not conducive to their development or that intervenes with their fundamental rights, such as the right to education.

Articles 73, 74, 75 and 76 of the Labour Law ban the employment of children under the age of 16 and set limits on the employment of minors between the ages of 16 and 18.