Cover image via DailyMail.com
Recently the DailyMail, a tabloid newspaper based in the UK published an exclusive report on how street kids in the Phillippines were locked up to keep the streets clean when the Pope was about to visit
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The investigation team revealed that children as young as five were rounded up in detention centres in Manila
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However, it was revealed that the conditions of the detention centres were bad, with children being kept behind bars and eating leftovers on the floor
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Rosalinda Orobia, the head of Social Welfare Department highlighted that this was being done to stop begging syndicates from targeting the Pope. "They know the Pope cares about poor kids, and they will take advantage of that".
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This has led to criticism from various quarters, saying that abuse and the terrible conditions in the centres should not happen. Besides that, there are no plans to keep the kids in schools thus allowing the child to go back out on the streets again.
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Locking up street kids before a major event in Manila isn't something new according to Catherine Scerri, the deputy director of a street children charity
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