Labour should support the campaign against UK child soldiers

Question: What do North Korea, El Salvador, Iran and the UK all have in common?

Answer: they all recruit children into their armed forces.

That’s right, it’s an uncomfortable and often overlooked fact, but the UK remains one of only 19 nations worldwide – and the only one in the EU – which still recruits 16 year-olds into the army.

It’s hard to believe that a century on from the First World War in which millions of soldiers, some as young as 15 and 16, gave up their lives to protect our freedoms we are still recruiting child soldiers.

Now you might not think this matters. After all those who join the army aged under-18 can only do so with their parents’ permission, and can only be deployed into combat when they reach 18. There is also no evidence to suggest that they serve with anything less than the same bravery, courage and distinction shown by those who join as adults.

All of that is true but it’s worth pausing to consider this: research suggests there is a direct link between how young a solider is when they join the army and their risk of developing a serious mental health problem when they leave.

Last year Forces Watch published research showing that those who are recruited to the army as minors are statically far more likely to be affected by post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other serious mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, alcohol abuse, self-harm or violent behaviour in the future. With under-18s now making up over a quarter of army recruits the problem is only going to grow in the future.

The causes behind this problem are complex but at least two of them are obvious. One is that those who join at 16 are naturally going to be younger when they are first deployed into combat than those who are recruited as adults. They are also more likely to be assigned to the infantry. This means they are always on the frontline of combat and as a result young recruits are exposed to the most horrific and unavoidable realities of war at a very young age.

The second is that minors are forced to serve for longer than those who join when they are older. The total minimum service length for minors in the army is six years, compared to four years for someone who joins as an adult.

So join at 18 and, if you’re lucky, after training you could be on the frontline for two years, join at 16 however and when you reach 18 you will be guaranteed to serve four years in combat. This extra time on the frontline increases soldiers exposures to the horror of wars and is unfair to force younger recruits to serve longer than their older counterparts.

This is an injustice which we should end. Child Soldiers International have announced that they are launching a claim for a judicial review into the terms of entitlement for those joining aged under-18. If they are successful then the minimum terms of service for minors would be reduced by two years to bring them in line with adults. Equal terms for all soldiers would be a good first step but on the basis of the mental health risks alone we should raise the recruitment age to 18.

A century ago we looked the other way as hundreds of thousands of minors went off to fight in the First World War, a hundred years later we shouldn’t still be doing the same thing. It’s time for Labour to lead the charge and end the recruitment of child soldiers in Britain forever.