Guinea Bissau: no to the incarceration of talibé children !!!

During a visit to the interior of the country on Saturday, July 6, 2017, the Prime Minister (PM) of Guinea-Bissau, Mr. Umaro Sissoco Embaló made a statement, in Creole, on the radio that he ordered his Interior Minister to imprison all child talibé beggars in the streets of Guinea-Bissau and send them to the islands of Bolama. "I am Muslim and Fulani and know that this practice is not recommended in Islam. It is a shame that parents send their sons to beg in the streets in the name of the teaching of Islam. Parents who cannot afford it must hand over their children to the state," the PM said.
The RAO Coordination in Guinea Bissau, Associaçao dos Amigos da Criança, AMIC reacted to these statements in the national and international press, including RDP Africa, Portuguese News Agency - Lusa, Deutsche Welle and the Voice of America, by condemning the detention order of the children given by the Prime Minister of Guinea Bissau. For, "this order of the PM violates not only the national child protection system, but also the international instruments committed by the State of Guinea-Bissau, including the CRC, the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and the ECOWAS manual that addresses the needs for protection of the rights of vulnerable children in mobility" said Laudolino Medina, Coordinator RAO-Guinea Bissau.
AMIC is part of the National Human Rights Commission in Guinea Bissau which held an urgent meeting and produced a press release deploring the order of detention of children given by the PM of Guinea Bissau. The Human Rights Commission called on the PM to instruct the Minister of Women and Social Solidarity to work with human rights partners and organisations to find adequate and sustainable responses and solutions to this issue.