Iraq is experiencing severe security and political complications that have negatively affected the economic and social situation of the country, as it is noticed the expansion and spread of the phenomenon of begging, especially the child begging, during the current stage, with the diversity of its forms depending on the method of begging.
The paper aims to shed light on the social risks of begging children in Iraq and reviews and analyzes those risks and their implications for the security and economic situation by answering the question: What are the social dangers of begging children in Iraq?
Child begging: need or profession? The phenomenon of begging among children is one of the dangerous phenomena that has repercussions and dimensions on the upbringing of children, as it has increased dramatically in the streets and roads. These children follow various direct and indirect methods of begging; some of them stand on streets crowded with people, or at the door of mosques and churches, passing by cemeteries, and at traffic lights knock on car windows. They follow various methods and painful and cruel methods to ask for money, such as making defects and unreal diseases through camouflage and deception.
As used in this paper, a beggar is a person who asks for money from people on public roads and alleys by using various means to arouse people’s sympathy and compassion. Although there are no accurate statistics for the number of children begging, the initial figure, according to the estimation of social organizations, is 100 thousand beggars. At the same time, the Central Bureau of Statistics estimated the number of homeless children at 320,000.
