The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is facing a backlash after it was revealed that many Army recruits are aged 16 or 17 – too young to participate in active combat.
Many of the recruits would also have begun the Army recruitment process at the age of 15, prompting criticism that Britain is being defended by an Army of “children”.
At least 20 recruits aged 17 are known to have been deployed to war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan as a result of Army administrative errors, The Independent reports.
Figures from the Armed Forces Annual Personnel Report for 2014 show that as many as one-tenth of recruits are officially “boy soldiers” aged just 16 – and more than one-quarter are below the age of 18 and therefore too young to be sent into a live combat situation.
Criticism of the Army’s policy of recruiting under-18s began in 1991 when 17-year-olds were sent to the first Gulf War – and again in 1999 when minors serving in the Army were sent to Kosovo. The Army then suspended its policy of sending very young recruits into war zones, where there was potential for them to be involved in live combat.
The Armed Forces overall currently have 1,700 recruits who are not old enough to vote, with the majority in the Army.
The Armed Forces Annual Personnel Report publishes annual statistics on “strength, intake and outflow of UK regular forces, with a focus on rank and age”.
The report also revealed that 9.9% of recruits in the UK Regular Forces are women – the Army has recently announced that in the future female serving officers may be sent into live combat situations and frontline duties, as female serving personnel in armies in other countries are.
The Armed Forces have also been actively trying to recruit more personnel from ethnic minority backgrounds and the statistics show that in April 2014, 7.7% of UK Regular Forces came from a black or ethnic minority background.
Just over half of all Army personnel (55.9%) are aged under 30 years – compared with 48.4% of Naval Service personnel and 39.2% of RAF personnel.
The statistics revealed that 1.1% of UK Regular Forces are under the age of 18, and 26.6% are under the age of 25.
As at April 1, 2014, there were 159,630 UK Regular Forces personnel, of which 27,850 were officers and 131,770 were other ranks.
Director of Child Soldiers International, Richard Clarke, told The Independent:
“By recruiting at 16, the UK isolates itself from its main political and military allies –and finds itself instead sharing a policy with the likes of North Korea and Iran. These are not states which the UK would normally want its military to be associated with.”
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