MAKKAH, Saudi Arabia, April 23 (UPI) -- Yemeni children say they have been brought to Saudi Arabia to become professional beggars, an Arab newspaper says.
Children seen asking for money on the streets told the Arab News they had been given instructions to say they were with parents.
One boy said his father gave him to a group of Yemenis who crossed the border, instructing him first to do whatever they told him. He said he was told to ask early in the day for money to buy lunch for his mother and later for dinner money.
"We give whatever we collect to the man who brought me here," he said.
A young girl told the News the woman she was with was not a relative.
"Every morning a man takes us and places us at various spots. Every young girl is accompanied by an old woman who pretends to be her mother," she said.
A reporter for the paper said he pretended to be a police officer and approached a Yemeni man with a woman and young child. The woman was asking for money to feed the child.
The man said the children are rented from their parents to become beggars or props.
