Month: August 2013

Young soldiers ‘more likely to die’

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Soldiers serving in Afghanistan who joined the Army at 16 are twice as likely to die than those who joined at 18 or above, a new report has claimed. Human rights groups Child Soldiers International and Forces Watch, who were behind the study, said the increased risk reflected the “disproportionately high” number of 16-year-olds who join front-line infantry roles.
Soldiers serving in Afghanistan who joined the Army at 16 are twice as likely to die than those who joined at 18 or above, a new report has claimed.

Human rights groups Child Soldiers International and Forces Watch, who were behind the study, said the increased risk reflected the “disproportionately high” number of 16-year-olds who join front-line infantry roles.

The Army’s recruitment policies drive young people with limited academic qualifications into the most dangerous roles because they are unable to enter less risky support or technical positions, the report’s authors said. A greater number of tours of duty in Afghanistan by soldiers who joined the Army at 16 was also a probable contributing factor, they added.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said it disputed the figures and claimed it was “wrong and misleading” to suggest that the Army channels minors into the most dangerous roles.

… Read more

ForcesWatch response to the Ministry of Defence’s statement, 22 August 2013

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In response to the paper, ‘Young age at Army enlistment is associated with greater war zone risks’, published by ForcesWatch and Child Soldiers International (August 2013), the Ministry of Defence have issued a statement containing a number of claims all of which are either inaccurate or not relevant to the study’s findings.  Here we respond to each claim in turn.

MoD: The report uses estimated figures for some soldiers.
The study is based on 209 fatalities among British soldiers in Afghanistan.  For 199 of these, the enlistment ages and enlistment dates were known and we could assign them to their enlistment age groups accordingly.  For the remaining 10 individuals, the enlistment age group was uncertain but could be estimated based on the year of birth and date of enlistment.  We ran the calculations including and excluding these 10 individuals and the results were the same.  So the report does use some estimated figures but its results do not depend on these.

MoD: The figures are not recognised, not correctly sourced, and not based on official statistics.
We used official Ministry of Defence statistics throughout (including published intake data for the ten years we investigated and the official fatalities listing on the MoD website) with the exception of data on 27 individuals (13% of total) whose date of birth and/or date of enlistment was not recorded in the official fatalities listing. … Read more

Youngest Army recruits pay highest price in Afghanistan, new report shows

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The risk of fatality in Afghanistan for recruits who enlisted into the British Army aged 16 and completed training has been twice as high as it has for those enlisting at 18 or above, according to a study published today on behalf of human rights groups Child Soldiers International and ForcesWatch. The authors believe the increased risk reflects the disproportionately high number of 16 year olds who join front-line Infantry roles.

Soldiers who enlisted at 16 have faced twice the risk of death in Afghanistan

Read the ForcesWatch response to the Ministry of Defence’s statement about this report

The risk of fatality in Afghanistan for recruits who enlisted into the British Army aged 16 and completed training has been twice as high as it has for those enlisting at 18 or above, according to a study published today on behalf of human rights groups Child Soldiers International and ForcesWatch.

The authors believe the increased risk reflects the disproportionately high number of 16 year olds who join front-line Infantry roles. This is the result of recruitment policies which drive young people with limited academic qualifications into the Army’s most dangerous roles. Those who enlist at 16 are effectively barred from entering many of the less risky support or technical roles due to lack of qualifications.… Read more