Wars and poverty strip lives from children - Mattarella

(ANSA) - ROME, JUN 11 - President Sergio Mattarella on Tuesday bemoaned the impact wars and poverty have on minors in a statement for the World Day Against Child Labour.
    "Wars and poverty strip little girls and boys of their lives, obliging them to drop out of school in order to undertake unfitting forms of labour - very often illegal and irregular - thus depriving them of their childhood and irreversibly jeopardizing their psychophysical development and their future," the head of State said.
    "Among migrants, the many unaccompanied minors risk becoming ghost workers, performing jobs that are incompatible with their age, and even disappearing into the realm of illegality before the very eyes of the communities they have been entrusted to after abandoning their countries of origin.
    "In order to do away with the deep-rooted causes of the phenomenon and protect the rights of the child, we need an approach capable of engaging governments, organizations, companies, communities, and individuals in creating an environment in which girls and boys can grow up healthy, educated, and free, without running the risk of being robbed of their childhood". (ANSA).