The piece cited Tehran city council member Fatemeh Daneshvar, who said that in many cases “children simply disappear” and that their dead bodies would later turn up in deserted areas missing eyes and kidneys.

She said: “Time and again we had warned about the phenomenon of children being sold. In dangerous neighborhoods, such as Herandi, children simply get lost and their parents do not even file complaints. These individuals have special lifestyles and their parents literally care less about them as many of them are suffering from drug addiction.”

 Her comments shed light on some of the most awful aspects of the crisis, which are that families are hiring their children out for work where they might not see their children for weeks. This means that parents are not particularly worried about not seeing their children and believe that they will soon turn up.

However, Daneshvar’s decision to blame the children and their parents for this crisis is disgusting.

 She said: “Parents should be very careful about their children and must immediately file reports if their children go missing… In many cases, it is witnessed that these parents lack even the slightest sense of responsibility towards their children.”

The reality is that parents should not be in the position that they have to send their children out to work in dangerous conditions. The economic situation in Iran that has forced 80% of Iranians below the poverty line is the sole result of the mullahs’ corruption.

The publication of this report caused much anger on Iran, sparking yet more protests, which meant that regime officials had to start denying these crimes were even happening.

Just hours after this report, the IRGC Quds Force-affiliated Tasnim news agency published a report that an “informed source” within the police was denying the claims, which shows how the mullahs’ regime is terrified of protests by the people.

Despite this, a state-run website published a piece acknowledging that there are “children working the streets” and that the networks employing them needed to be held accountable. However, what is often not reported is that regime insiders are profiting from the “labor children”.