More than 100 minors, street dwellers and vagrants were rounded up late Thursday night after personnel of the local office of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) swooped down on their hangouts in Caloocan City.

The operation, dubbed "Sagip Kalinga," was initiated by the National Capital Region-DSWD to clear the streets of illegal dwellers.

Mylene Molina, social worker of the local DSWD, said most of the rounded-up minors were found loitering in some streets in defiance of curfew being imposed by barangay authorities. "Others are plain street dwellers and street children who ran away from their respective families and made the streets their homes."

Most of those rounded up were found sleeping in the sidewalks of EDSA, along 10th Avenue in Grace Park district and in the Monumento area. She said street dwellers will be temporarily housed in the city's Tahanang Mapagpala while being processed under the government's Balik-Probinsya program.

Minors taken for curfew violations will be returned to their respective families after undergoing counselling by the local DSWD.

Molina said a woman found to be suffering from mental illness was brought to the National Institution for Mental Health in Mandaluyong City for proper care and disposition.