Migrant children sell candy in the subway. New York has no solutions.

On a recent subway platform in the Bronx, a girl in a puffer coat walked past passengers with a basket of M&Ms, Kit Kats and Trident gum over her shoulder. She looked 7 or 8 years old.

One rider captured her on one video posted on X, shouting, “No parent, no parent, where is the parent?” as she walked by.

Of all the manifestations of human misery that the two-year migrant crisis has brought to New York City, few burden the conscience more than the sight of children selling candy on the subway — sometimes during school hours, sometimes accompanied by parents, sometimes not.

On trains and on social mediaNew Yorkers have wondered: Isn’t this child labor? Is it illegal? Shouldn’t someone do something to help these children?

Children between the ages of 6 and 17 do required to be at school. Children under the age of 14 are not allowed to do most chores. You may not sell goods in transit without a permit.

But whose job is it to do anything? Recent questions to seven city and state agencies found the consensus was “not mine.”

Over the past two years, more than 180,000 migrants have been processed by New York City agencies, and about 65,000 remain in homeless shelters. Many of the newcomers are desperate to survive in an expensive city, but cannot work legally. Selling food is one of their main sources of income.

A 16-year-old who was selling candy on a train in midtown Manhattan on a recent weekday morning at 10:45 a.m. said she was there “because I have to help my parents.” She declined to give her name.

The Ministry of Education has “on-call teachers” who ensure that families send their children to school, but they do not go out on patrol. “I think I’ll refer you to the NYPD on this,” a spokeswoman wrote.

Police said they issued more than 1,100 citations last year for “unlawful sales and unlawful solicitation/deception” on the subway. But the department declined to say whether officers are instructed to do anything if they see school-aged children selling candy during school hours.

The state Labor Department said it was “difficult to determine” whether the practice of children selling candy on the subway would violate labor law, which generally “regulates employment relations (i.e., between employers and employees).”

The city’s child welfare agency, the Administration for Children’s Services, said anyone who sees a child in a situation that appears unsafe can call the state’s child abuse hotline.

But the state Office of Children and Family Services, which operates the hotline, said a child selling or dealing in merchandise would not be considered abuse or neglect unless there are specific concerns about potential harm, such as “children selling candy on a dangerous intersection. (Although subway crime has declined in recent years, the governor deployed the National Guard and State Police to subway stations on Wednesday to address lingering safety concerns.)

There are logistical hurdles to addressing this problem. By the time someone called the state hotline and the report was evaluated and passed on to ACS, a candy vendor could have already moved to another location. The police can respond more quickly, but are usually only deployed in emergencies.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the subways, cited this rule against unauthorized commercial activitieswhich carries a $50 fine, and referred further investigation to the police and City Hall.

Most candy sellers are from Ecuador, immigrant advocates say, and photos of children selling candy here have raised concerns there. When Mayor Eric Adams visited Ecuador in October during a whirlwind tour of Latin America discourage migrants from coming to New Yorka local reporter confronted him at a press conference.

“What’s going to happen to our Ecuadorian children, who we saw selling candy in Times Square, on the subway?” she asked.

The mayor responded sideways. “I have seen children selling candy on the streets of all my countries,” he said, adding, “In New York City, we do not allow our children to be in dangerous environments.”

Migrants hesitate to talk about their work or where they buy the candy. New York Magazine reported this last year that some get it from wholesalers or cheap stores.

Monica Sibri, an Ecuadorian immigrant who advocates for migrants in New York, listed a number of reasons she said newly arrived migrants had given her to bring their children to sell on trains.

Some, she said, wrongly assume their children can miss a semester of school and easily catch up. Some face delays in registering their children due to paperwork and immunization records. Some, she said, sold candy in Ecuador with their children and are simply doing the same here, as a temporary measure.

“The families are not saying they don’t want their children to go to school,” Ms Sibri said. “What they’re saying is that they haven’t found the paperwork they need to enter them yet, and some of them don’t trust the system.”

Ms. Sibri and other advocates are holding sessions this spring for migrant children and their families-turned-candy sellers to help provide them with resources to get an education and “live with dignity.”

At 2:25 p.m. Friday, a woman with a little girl and a smaller boy were selling Snickers and Welch’s Fruit Snacks on the uptown platform of Columbus Circle in Manhattan.

Kristina Voronaia, a 32-year-old caterer from Kazakhstan, sat next to them on the couch and looked back. “It would be better if they were in school,” she said.

The girl went alone to look for customers. Josefina Vazquez, 50, a home health aide, asked where her mother was. Close, the girl said.

“That’s bad,” Ms. Vazquez said, “to use children.”

The candy seller said she was 9 years old. She was not in school, she said in Spanish, because she had not been in for a vaccination appointment.

Further down the platform, she approached Sandra Acosta pleadingly. Mrs. Acosta bought a bag of peanut M&Ms. “She should be in school,” said Ms. Acosta, 55, who is also a home health aide. “And it’s dangerous – there are a lot of crazy people out there.”

She thought about it some more and said she felt sorry for the child’s mother. “Maybe she doesn’t have anyone to leave them and take care of them,” she said. “We have to see the balance from both sides.”

Liset Cruz reporting contributed.