Beaten and tortured: the north African children paying a bloody price for Europe’s insatiable appetite for cocaine | Global development
Image of a boy made out of ‘cocaine’ Illustration: Carl Godfrey/The Guardian Maddalena Chiarenza never quite knows what state the children will be in when they arrive at her door. She has seen terrible injuries. Black eyes, missing teeth. A broken jaw. “They suffer such regular violence,” says Chiarenza, whose Brussels-based NGO, SOS Jeune, cares for unaccompanied Moroccan and Algerian children. A short walk from the NGO’s office near the Eurostar terminal, ragged groups of north African children are a common sight. Some walk through the streets like zombies, after being fed Rivotril, a potent benzodiazepine. Chiarenza says that other than a handful of NGOs such as SOS Jeune, these children have few friends. Nobody wants to take responsibility for their care. Number 332 Some of the children the NGO has cared for have since died; through sickness, murder or suicide; Chiarenza says at least five in the past three years. Another 23 children it has had contact with are in prison, some on drug offences. On the surface, the plight of these unaccompanied child …
