Official: China street children need help

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BEIJING, Aug. 20 (UPI) -- Chinese government agencies need to do more to help street children and to reunite them with their families, a leading official says.

Vice Premier Hui Liangyu discussed the exploitation of street children in a speech Friday at a conference in Beijing, Xinhua, the official government news agency, reported. He said children and teens on their own are bought, sold and recruited by criminals.

In the long run, the government and Chinese society must do more to help families care for children to prevent them from becoming homeless, Hui said. In the meantime, he said agencies should coordinate their work and to enforce existing laws and policies on free education and poverty reduction.