Report: Italy has army of child beggars

ROME, July 6 (UPI) -- There are nearly 50,000 children begging in the streets in Italy, most of them under 12 and foreign-born Roma, a report released Friday said.

The European Fundamental Rights Agency prepared the report as part of a campaign against the exploitation of children, the news agency Ansa reported.

The Roma, also known as gypsies, are descended from a Hindi-speaking group that moved into the Middle East hundreds of years ago and then spread throughout Europe. The report said most of the child beggars in Italy are from Albania, Morocco, Romania and the former Yugoslavia.

Italian procedures call for young children found living on the streets to be placed in temporary shelters. If their families cannot be traced, they are supposed to be adopted or placed in permanent homes and given an education.

In practice, most foreign-born children escape from temporary shelters within two days.