Kids 'pawned' to loan sharks to pay debts near Naples

(ANSA) - NAPLES, JUL 10 - People in hock to Camorra loan sharks have been 'pawning' their children to work off their debts at Caserta near Naples, Italian bishops daily Avvenire said Friday.
    "It is one of the chilling ways of paying off debts that loan sharks have been using in these last few months," when money has been tighter due to COVID, said the daily.
    "If there are sons or daughters of a working age, legally, adults or minors, the loan shark asks the father to use them in a firm close to him, but which cannot be traced back to him," said the chair of the local chamber of commerce.
    "And in actual fact, the kids don't really work off the debt; it gets worse," he said.
    The Camorra is the mafia from Naples and its surrounding Campania region. (ANSA).