Children in the army

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Quakers in Scotland and ForcesWatch presented a petition to the Scottish Parliament on Thursday 15 September calling for greater scrutiny, guidance and consultation on the visits of armed forces to schools in Scotland. Over four-fifths of state secondary schools in Scotland were visited by the armed forces in a two-year period, according to a 2014 ForcesWatch report.

Child Soldiers International reports that in 2015 almost one in four new recruits into the British army were children under the age of 18.

They are directed into frontline combat roles, such as the infantry, which suffers more fatalities than any other part of the armed forces.

Children in the army have higher rates of mental health and addiction problems and receive lower standards of education than their civilian peers. They can also be made to stay in the army up to two years longer than adult recruits.

The public petition, lodged jointly by ForcesWatch and Quakers in Scotland, has more than 1000 signatories. Ekklesia reports that it calls on The Scottish Parliament Education and Culture Committee to hold an inquiry into armed forces visits, and for the Scottish Government and local authorities to:

• Produce guidance for local authorities and schools on how visits by the armed forces should be conducted, taking account of the unique nature of armed forces careers, and ensuring political balance.
• Increase scrutiny of armed forces visits to schools, including monitoring the number and location of visits and seeking to establish whether there is a link with deprivation indicators.
• Ensure schools always consult parents/guardians as to whether they are happy for their child to take part in armed forces activities at school.

‘Fun days’ often provide an informal introduction to the idea of recruitment.

Mairi Campbell-Jack, Scottish parliamentary engagement officer for Quakers in Britain, says: ‘This issue needs scrutiny and public debate by all in Scottish society, especially parents and children themselves.’ Emma Sangster, Coordinator for ForcesWatch, which monitors military recruitment practices, says,

“We hope this petition will spark a wider public debate and see Scotland follow Wales in accepting recommendations to increase scrutiny of armed forces visits and broaden the range of employers going into schools.”

 

 

 

A call to end the recruitment of minors by the British armed forces

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David Gee is co-author of the report, One Step Forward: The case for ending recruitment of minors by the British armed forces, published by ForcesWatch and Child Soldiers International last week.

The British armed forces enlist around 22,000 people each year to replace personnel who leave; of these, around 4,700 are under eighteen years of age。

The One Step Forwardreport shows that recruiting minors is highly costly, due to the legal requirements governing their recruitment and deployment, and leads to operational　pressures. It also argues that it does not serve the best interests of young people. 

Gee continues:

“With an hour between trains in Bangor recently, I walked around the town to get a feel for the place. The council had had a go at brushing up the high street, but a fair few shops were lying empty and youngsters were hanging about at a loose end. The recession had clearly paid a visit, but around the corner one shop window still looked bright. Healthy, attractive poster-faces beamed out at passers-by: a chef, an electrician, an engineer.

“This was the armed forces recruiting office. Its appeal to a sixteen-year-old, particularly one who struggled at school, is obvious: join the army, learn a trade, find your dignity, belong to something.

“In reality, the army isn’t a glorified version of the social services offering free white-water rafting holidays to disaffected youth; it’s there to fight a war in Afghanistan. A boy leaving school for the army without good GCSEs is most likely to end up driving lorries or firing a rifle, rather than learning a technical trade such as fixing helicopters. He can’t be sent to war until he’s eighteen, but, having enlisted at sixteen, he is still more likely than those joining when older to be killed or to return home traumatised by his war experience.

“Last week we released our report calling on the Ministry of Defence to follow most of the rest of the world by recruiting adults only into the armed forces. The case for this is strong. The current policy not only encourages young people to disadvantage themselves in the long term by coming out of the education system early, it is also extremely expensive because younger recruits take so long to train.

“As the report made headlines, many interviewers asked, ‘But doesn’t the army save so many young people from lives of unemployment and petty crime?’ . . . He concludes that:

“. . . We, the adult generation, are teaching our children how to kill people on our behalf. To my (Quaker) faith, this radically diminishes us all as human beings”.

the Friend, 3 May 2013

See also Quaker Michael Bartlet in the Guardian, 2011