Child street vendors

Acting Police Commissioner, Papalii Monalisa Tiai-Keti told the Samoa Observer they have started bringing parents in and warning them.

Her comments came on the back of a social media video of street vendors fighting and stopping traffic.

Pastor Aumua Eric Poe of Christian City Church has urged authorities to address the increase in young child street vendors, adding there is a strong connection between street vending and begging.

An International Labour Organisation report launched in 2017 found a total of 106 children working on the streets of Apia.

The report said children as young as 7 were working on the streets children selling food, juice, razor blades, sweeping out the leis and lavalavas, or sweeping market floors.

Another ILO survey prior to the 2017 report showed children selling or scavenging on the streets sometimes from early morning until midnight.

The report recommended an amendment to laws to help tackle this growing problem.

Ten representatives of families from villages of Leone, Tufuiopa, Vaiusu and Leulumoega tuai, have been selected to participate.

One participant and a mother of seven, Temukisa Semau, said she wanted to start a small business printing tapa or elei materials to sell, instead of sending her three children aged 8, 9, and 12 to sell goods on the streets.

She has admitted it was wrong for her kids to be out making money but she said her husband was the only one who worked and his weekly salary did not meet the high cost of living.

Police are hoping new laws would help address the problem of children selling food in the streets as well as roaming around late at night.

Police spokesperson Su’a Le Mamea Tiumalu says they followed procedures in the recent case of children beating up a man sleeping on the footpath in Apia last month.

“We’ve followed proper procedures with the formal warning and we are planning to try and do more by running seminars in the villages, especially the ones who have children as vendors,” Su’a said.