Afghan's Poorest Of The Poor

JASON MOTLAGH/THE WASHINGTON TIMES 'RAGPICKERS': An Afghan girl picks up a shirt to take home from a garbage dump in Lahore, Pakistan. Children of refugees insist they are better off sifting through trash than going home.

Garbage Sustains Afghan 'Ragpickers'
-- Washington Times

LAHORE, Pakistan | Six-year-old Ali Reza Khan spots a half-eaten apple and steps toward it, darting when another boy makes his move. In one quick swoop, he picks it up, wipes it with a soiled sleeve and takes a bite.

It's 7:30 a.m. at the city garbage dump, and the hunt is on.

Several truckloads of refuse soon arrive, and Ali tosses aside the rind to join a frenzy of Afghan children who depend on the bounty hidden within each steaming mound to support themselves and their families.

Known locally as "ragpickers," most were born in Pakistan after their parents fled the violence and economic hardships that continue to worsen across the border.

Pakistan's own economy is on the brink as the government seeks an emergency infusion of cash from foreign donors, but the country remains home to 1.8 million Afghan refugees seven years after the overthrow of the Taliban.

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My Comment: These people are at the lowest of the low. And the tragedy is that most of them are children.