While world attention has focused on child soldiers in Africa, industrialized countries also recruit teens under 18-a violation of the spirit if not the letter of international treaties.
According to some critics, Britain allows the lowest recruitment and deployment age in Europe, which has stirred condemnation. Just like seventeen year old Aaron, Geoff Gray and 18-year-old Paul Donnachie, the British army is saturated with young people. And even more worse is that, these youth are deployed on the front lines who met terrible fate and die at a very young age.
Although, it’s not illegal to send 18-year-olds to war, but human rights activists take issue with the very young age - 16 and 17 - at which British soldiers are recruited and could be deployed.
Amnesty International has reported too has asserted that Britain has the lowest deployment and recruitment age in Europe and it is the only European country that has routinely sent under-18s into armed conflict.
Most western European countries have set all forms of military recruitment at 18 and Sweden has campaigned to raise the age higher.
‘It Gets us a Better Army’
The country finds itself in the company of African nations like Sierra Leone and Sudan for bringing ‘children’ into the ranks of the armed forces.
Major Dickie Hamzat, the company commander of these young recruits, said the Army couldn’t survive without them. He says,
I think it gets us a better army. They can be molded, even though the decisions they have to make are quite daunting for them, initially.... If we don’t start recruiting at this early age, these people will get into long-term relationships; will look at other aspects of their life in a settled job.... They won’t look to the Army for a career, and they’ll be lost to us.
What is the situation like?
Hundreds of thousands of child soldiers are being used in conflicts around the world and governments are doing little to stop this. Children are being subjected to horrific abuse, and thus are killed. Thus, the need of the hour is to take up the matter seriously.
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Comments
This is an extremely disturbing trend. Sending someone to off to give their life in a war who is not considered to be old enough to drink legally is seriously suspect. They are not old enough to drink beer, but somehow it makes sense for them to be wielding weapons and making life or death decisions. Something definitely is not right about that.
I have just as much issue with the fact that the poor and minorities are targeted for recruitment in the USA.