Two campaign groups on Tuesday called for Britain to stop recruiting 16 and 17-year-olds to its armed forces, a practice that has been abandoned by most countries.
Child Soldiers International and ForcesWatch said Britain’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) wasted up to US$143 million a year by recruiting minors, who it said were twice as expensive to train as 18-year-olds.
But the MoD said the report ignored the benefits that a military career offered young people, and said it had no plans to change its policy.
Child Soldiers International - which campaigns primarily against the use of child soldiers in armed conflicts in Africa and Asia - said fewer than 20 countries continue to recruit soldiers from the age of 16.
“The large majority of countries worldwide now recruit only adults aged 18 or above into their armed forces,” the London-based charity said.
“The UK is the only member of the European Union and only permanent member of the UN Security Council still recruiting from age 16.”
In a new report co-authored by the British campaign group ForcesWatch, the charity said under-18s were more likely to join the infantry, where the risk of fatality in Afghanistan has been five times that faced by the rest of the army.