The week after a child rights campaign run by World Vision and Albanian media, a fifteen-year-old boy was buried alive in a rubbish dump while collecting waste material.  The case has highlighted the need to protect children’s rights and prevent injury, exploitation and death caused by child labour.

Besmir Ujka was looking for cans and metal in a rubbish dump an hour northwest of Tirana.  He was caught beneath a load of rubbish dumped by a truck that he didn’t see.  Perhaps, according to his friends, Besmir was distracted when he saw two dollars.  For him, this was two days pay.

Besmir died from his wounds soon after being taken to hospital.  His father, working abroad, heard about his son’s death by telephone and travelled all night to see him one last time.

Boyhood dreams

When Besmir was a young boy his family moved from the north of Albania, seeking a better life.  Instead they found a daily struggle for survival.  Besmir’s father was unable to land a job in his home country and, like many Albanian fathers, has spent the past five years working in Greece.

Besmir worked every day in search of scrap metal and cans to sell to help support the family —
his mother and a younger sister — and to pay for medicine to alleviate the effects of his muscular dystrophy.

The healthier life he dreamt of never came.  His life was cut short by the pile of waste that buried him alive.

Long way to go

Albania’s media and politicians talk of progress regarding children’s rights. Yet Besmir’s death suggests that there’s a long way to go. Albanian children are still working to support themselves and their families instead of studying in school. For some, even the basic right to life is at risk.

World Vision Albania’s quantitative study on street children in Tirana showed that working, begging and living on the streets expose children to everything from harsh weather conditions to physical and emotional abuse.  The same study revealed that many children work an average of seven hours per day.  Some work up to eighteen.

Besmir’s death came just days after a child rights campaign run by World Vision and local media. Through its Children in Crisis project in Tirana, World Vision is focusing on child protection, life skills and education.  Leaders work with children, teachers and communities, teaching about children’s rights.