BAGHDAD — The Baghdad Operations Command announced the release of two kidnapped children from southern Baghdad on Aug. 20. The crime itself was no surprise, as the abduction of children has become a serious and common social problem in Iraq. This summer, a UN report confirmed that 1,496 Iraqi children have been abducted during the past 36 months and few have been seen again. In one rare case, on Aug. 3, a kidnapped child was released from captivity and his kidnapper arrested in Baghdad.

Poor Iraqi families have been calling for help since June in Basra, where children are now being snatched from the streets or their homes. On June 22, the council of Al-Qurnah district in the Basra governorate warned about the rise of child abduction, demanding the security forces to take decisive actions against it. This kind of crime had previously affected the children of the rich.

Mostly, reported cases of child abduction are not dealt with systematically by the Iraqi police, noted Mohsin Ali Attia, a writer in the field of education in Babil governorate. “Intervention in these cases remains at the security level. There is no comprehensive treatment for this pressing issue,” Attia told Al-Monitor.

Capt. Abbas Fadil of the Babil police told Al-Monitor, “There are no sociologists or experts on child abduction. Children who are released from captivity are returned to their families without any psychological or social treatment and follow-up.”