|
Country |
Child
Slavery |
| Afghanistan
|
GENERAL NOTES
AND OBSERVATIONS
* Little information
is available on forced or compulsory labour. (US
Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999,
25 February 2000)
|
| Albania
|
NATIONAL STATISTICS
*
There are around 3,000 enslaved Albanian children used for begging
and cleaning windows and cars without payment, in Italy and Greece.
(CRCA,
The Vicious Circle, 2000)
GENERAL
NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS
*
There are reports that children are trafficked and forced to work
abroad as prostitutes and beggars. (US
Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999,
25 February 2000)
|
| Algeria
|
GENERAL NOTES
AND OBSERVATIONS
* Armed terrorist
groups reportedly kidnap young women and keep them as sex slaves.
(US
Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999,
25 February 2000)
* The Government
prohibits forced and bonded labour by children and generally enforces
this prohibition. (US
Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999,
25 February 2000)
|
| Andorra
|
GENERAL NOTES
AND OBSERVATIONS
* Forced labour,
including that performed by children, is not specifically prohibited
by law. No cases are reported.
(US
Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999,
25 February 2000)
|
| Angola
|
GENERAL NOTES
AND OBSERVATIONS
* The National
Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) rebel forces
are alleged to abduct children, who are used for forced labour and
in military service, and women, who are used for forced labour,
including as sex slaves.
(US
Dept. of State, Trafficking in Persons Report, July 12, 2001)
|
| Antigua
and Barbuda |
- |
| Argentina
|
- |
| Armenia
|
GENERAL NOTES
AND OBSERVATIONS
* Forced labour
is banned by law. No instances have been cited. (US
Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999,
25 February 2000)
|
| Australia
|
ADULT STATISTICS
* In 1995, about
300 Thai women were held in the sex industry under debt bondage
in Sydney. (CATW
Fact Book, citing Maria Moscaritolo, "Australia takes aim at Asian
sex slave trade", Reuters, 26 May 1998)
|
| Austria
|
GENERAL NOTES AND
OBSERVATIONS
* There is protection
by law against forced and bonded labour. The legal working age is
15 years.
(US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999,
25 February 2000)
|
| Azerbaijan
|
GENERAL NOTES
AND OBSERVATIONS
* No law related
to forced labour exist. No cases have been reported. (US
Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999,
25 February 2000)
|
| Bahamas
|
GENERAL NOTES
AND OBSERVATIONS
* The constitutional
prohibition of forced and compulsory labour, including that by children,
is respected in practice.
(US
Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999,
25 February 2000)
|
| Bahrain
|
GENERAL NOTES
AND OBSERVATIONS
* Workers from
the Philippines, Ethiopia, India, Russia, and Belarus have reported
being forced into domestic servitude and sexual exploitation. (US
Dept. of State, Trafficking in Persons Report, July 12, 2001)
* Diplomats
and businessmen from Bahrain have been caught with slaves they have
smuggled into the United States. (American
Anti-Slavery Group, Jesse Sage, e-mail to GMIS, 6 November 2000)
|
| Bangladesh
|
NATIONAL
STATISTICS
* An estimated
496,000 children are in slavery. (Bangladesh
Bureau of Statistics, Report on National Sample Survey of Child
Labour in Bangladesh, October 1996)
* More than 9,000 girls are trafficked each year from Nepal
and Bangladesh into bondage in India and Pakistan, often with the
acquiescence or cooperation of state officials.
(CATW
Fact Book, citing Amnesty International press release, 22 April
1998)
LOCAL STATISTICS
* 1,000 children of Tungapara are in slavery in the Gulf, India, Pakistan
and other countries.
(American Anti-Slavery Group, Charles Jacobs, Slavery: Worldwide Evil,
April 1996)
GENERAL NOTES
AND OBSERVATIONS
* Children who
work in domestic service may work in conditions that resemble servitude
and prostitution. (US
Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999,
25 February 2000)
* Reports from
human rights monitors indicate that child kidnapping, and trafficking
for labour bondage and prostitution continues to be a serious and
widespread problem. (US
Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999,
25 February 2000)
|
| Barbados
|
- |
| Belarus
|
GENERAL NOTES
AND OBSERVATIONS
* Workers from
the Philippines, Ethiopia, India, Russia, and Belarus have reported
being forced into domestic servitude and sexual exploitation in
Bahrain. (US
Dept. of State, Trafficking in Persons Report, July 12, 2001)
* No cases of
forced labour or bonded child labour have been reported.
(US
Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999,
25 February 2000)
|
| Belgium
|
GENERAL NOTES
AND OBSERVATIONS
* No cases of
forced or bonded child labour is recorded. (US
Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999,
25 February 2000)
|
| Belize
|
- |
| Benin
|
GENERAL NOTES
AND OBSERVATIONS
* Trokosi slavery
extends out of Ghana and into remote regions of Benin and Togo.
(American Anti-Slavery Group, Jesse Sage, e-mail
to GMIS, 6 November 2000)
* Some financially
desperate parents indenture their children to "agents" recruiting
farm hands or domestic workers, often on the understanding that
money paid to the children would be sent to their parents. According
to press reports, in some cases, unscrupulous individuals take the
children to neighbouring countries. (US
Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999,
25 February 2000)
|
| Bhutan
|
GENERAL NOTES
AND OBSERVATIONS
* No laws are
in force. No cases have been reported. (US
Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999,
25 February 2000)
|
| Bolivia
|
ADULT STATISTICS
* Over 10-20
million people are subjected to debt bondage largely in India, Bolivia,
Brazil, Peru and Philippines. (Debt Bondage:
The Challenge for the Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery,
submission to the UN Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery,
June 1996)
GENERAL NOTES
AND OBSERVATIONS
* Criaditos
are indigenous children of both sexes, usually 10 to 12 years old,
whom their parents indenture to middle and upper-class families
to perform household work in exchange for education, clothing, room,
and board. (US
Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999,
25 February 2000)
* Some rural
indigenous workers are kept in a state of virtual slavery by employers.
(US
Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999,
25 February 2000)
|
| Bosnia
and Herzegovina |
GENERAL NOTES
AND OBSERVATIONS
* A significant
number of women are manipulated or coerced into situations in which
they work in brothels in conditions close to slavery. (US
Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000,
February 2001)
* Child servitude
or forced labour is not known.
(US
Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999,
25 February 2000)
|
| Botswana
|
- |
| Brazil
|
NATIONAL
STATISTICS
* In March the
ILO reported that observers have cited over 3,000 girls who were
subject to debt servitude and forced into prostitution in the state
of Rondonia. (US
Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000,
February 2001, citing ILO)
* Although the
MLE found no children working as forced labourers during the year,
in 1999 the Pastoral Land Commission reported 25 children under
the age of 16 found working in conditions of forced labour. (US
Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000,
February 2001)
* 22% of child
labourers are working in slavery-like conditions. (ILO,
Targeting the Intolerable, November 1996)
LOCAL STATISTICS
* Before 1997,
2,500 children were in charcoal-making in Mato Grosso do Sul, mostly
as slave labour. (SEJUP website, citing Folha
de Sao Paulo)
ADULT STATISTICS
* There were
an estimated 19,940 slave labourers in 1993, which increased to
25,193 in 1994. (ILO-IPEC,
Mainstreaming Gender in IPEC Activities, 1999)
* Over 10-20 million people are subjected to debt bondage largely
in India, Bolivia, Brazil, Peru and Philippines.
(Debt Bondage: The Challenge for the Working Group on Contemporary
Forms of Slavery, submission to the UN Working Group on Contemporary
Forms of Slavery, June 1996)
GENERAL NOTES
AND OBSERVATIONS
* A considerable
number of children work under conditions approximating forced labour
or debt bondage in the mining industry and the plantations. (EI,
EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector,
1998)
* The Committee
expressed concern about the widespread problem of forced labour
and debt bondage, especially in rural areas. (UN
Human Rights Committee, Comments on Brazil, 1996)
* In Amazonia
the type of forced child prostitution meets every criteria of slavery.
(US Dept of Labor, Prostitution of Children,
1996)
* There is forced
child labour/debt-bonded child labour in the charcoal industry.
(US
Dept of Labor, Sweat and Toil of Children, 1994, citing Anti-Slavery
International, Alison Sulton, Slavery in Brazil, 1994)
|
| Brunei
Darussalam |
- |
| Bulgaria
|
GENERAL NOTES
AND OBSERVATIONS
* Cases of
forced or bonded labour have not been reported.
(US
Dept of State, Human Rights Report, 1998)
* The Bulgarian
Helsinki Committee reported that the Slavovitsa Labour Educational
School employs forced child labour to produce articles sold in domestic
and international markets. (EI,
EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector,
1998)
* According
to the report, minors are used as prison labourers for agricultural
and industrial tasks as well. (EI,
EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector,
1998)
|
| Burkina
Faso |
GENERAL NOTES AND
OBSERVATIONS
*
The government prohibits forced or bonded child labour but does
not enforce this prohibition effectively. (EI,
EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector,
1998)
*
Many families entrust their children, mainly boys aged five or six,
to the care of a religious leader, or marabout, with whom the boys
live until the age of 15 or 16. The children, perform various tasks
in the marabout's school or household. In addition, begging is considered
to be part of the child's learning process. These students, known
as garibou, live in poor conditions with up to 3,000 other students.
(CWA,
"Child Prostitution in Vietnam", Child Workers in Asia,
Vol. 10, No. 3, July -September 1994)
|
| Burma
(Myanmar) |
ADULT STATISTICS
* Since 1992,
the military has forced at least 2 million people across the country
to work without pay on the construction of roads, railways and bridges.
(Human Rights Watch/Asia, "Burma:
Children's Rights and the Rule of the Law", submission to the UN
CRC, January 1997)
GENERAL NOTES
AND OBSERVATIONS
* Allegations
of the use of child labour include reports that children are being
used as forced labourers in infrastructure development projects
and military support operations. There are also reports that children
are being drafted as soldiers. (US
Dept of State, Report On Labour Practices In Burma, 2000)
* Widespread
forced labour, including forced child labour, continued to contribute
materially to the construction and maintenance not only of irrigation
facilities important to the cultivation of some export crops including
rice, but also of roads and some railroads important for the transportation
of exports to ports. (US
Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999,
25 February 2000)
* The army
raids villages and towns for forced portering, whereby they force
villagers to carry its supplies and ammunition for offensives in
the border regions or for routine operations.
(UN Working Group on Contemporary Forms of
Slavery, June 1996)
* Juntas force
locals to work on commercial projects for the army such as paddy
and fishpond and tree-planting operations, which the local farmers
have to build and maintain. (UN Working Group
on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, June 1996)
* Women and
children are randomly picked by the local police or the military
for carrying heavy loads of ammunition, food and other supplies
between army camps. They are not paid for their work. (ICFTU,
Burma: SLORC's Private Slave Camp, June 1995)
|
| Burundi
|
GENERAL NOTES
AND OBSERVATIONS
* There were
reports that soldiers used children for forced labour. (US
Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000,
February 2001)
* Throughout
2000 opposition forces also continued to use children for forced
labour. (CSUCS,
Global Report on Child Soldiers - 2001, 12 June 2001)
|
| Cambodia
|
GENERAL NOTES
AND OBSERVATIONS
* Cambodian men, women, and children are trafficked internationally,
principally to Thailand for various forms of bonded labour, including
street begging. (US
Dept. of State, Trafficking in Persons Report, July 12, 2001)
|
| Cameroon
|
LOCAL STATISTICS
* There were credible reports that slavery continues to be practiced
in parts of northern Cameroon, including in the Lamidat of Rey Bouba,
a traditional kingdom in the North Province.
(US
Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25
February 2000)
GENERAL NOTES
AND OBSERVATIONS
* Children are
trafficked from and through Cameroon to other West African countries
for indentured or domestic servitude, farm labour, and sexual exploitation.
(US
Dept. of State, Trafficking in Persons Report, July 12, 2001)
|
| Canada
|
ADULT STATISTICS
* About 12,
16-30-year-old, Asian girls and women are trafficked into Canada
each week on visitor's permits and sold into prostitution.The women
are sold to brothel owners in Markham, Scarborough, Toronto, and
Los Angeles, and forced into $40,000 debt-bondage. (CATW
Fact Book, citing "Police Bust Sex-slave Ring", UPI, 11 September
1997, citing police officials)
|
| Cape
Verde |
- |
| Central
African Republic |
- |
| Chad
|
GENERAL NOTES
AND OBSERVATIONS
* There are
no reports of forced labour practices in the formal economy, but
there were isolated instances of forced labour by adults and children
in the rural sector, by local authorities as well as in military
installations in the north.
(US
Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999,
25 February 2000)
* The prohibition
on forced and bonded labour by children is not effectively enforced,
and there are reports of slavery, forced and compulsory labour of
children among rural farming and herding communities.
(EI,
EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector,
1998)
|
| Chile
|
- |
| China
|
ADULT STATISTICS
* From 1991
to 1996, Chinese police freed 88,000 kidnapped women and children
and arrested 143,000 people for participating in the slave trade.
(CATW
Fact Book, citing Liu Bohonhg, Dorinda Elliott, "Trying to Stand
on Two Feet", Newsweek, 29 June 1998)
* 3,000 women
and children were rescued after being abducted and sold into slavery
in Southern China during the past two years. (CATW
Fact Book, citing Sophia Woodman, "Trafficking of Women in China",
Voice of America, 27 September 1995)
GENERAL NOTES
AND OBSERVATIONS
* Alien smuggling
organisations use Suriname as an intermediate destination to smuggle
Chinese nationals, including women and girls, to the United States,
where frequently they are forced into bonded labour situations.
(US
Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999,
25 February 2000)
* Traffickers
lure people from China, the Philippines, Bangladesh and other nations
to the Northern Mariana Islands, a United States territory promising
lucrative work. Instead, many are forced into slave labour and prostitution.
(CATW
Fact Book, citing Laura Myers, "Sen. Panel Hears of Marianas Abuses",
AP Online, 31 March 1998)
|
China,
Hong Kong SAR |
GENERAL NOTES
AND OBSERVATIONS
* Brothels in
Hong Kong employ minders to prevent girls from running away. In
1994, a woman attempting to escape was murdered. (CATW-Asia
Pacific, Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific,
1996)
|
China,
Macau SAR |
- |
China,
Taiwan |
- |
| Colombia
|
NATIONAL
STATISTICS
* Child prostitution rings working in sex shops throughout Colombia
were raided in September 1998, freeing 370 minors aged 12-16. The
children were being held in slavery-like conditions, abused and
forced into prostitution. At least 145 of the children where found
in Cartegena, a busy sex-tourist destination.
(CATW
Fact Book, citing "Colombia launches crackdown on child prostitution",
Reuters, 26 September 1998)
GENERAL NOTES
AND OBSERVATIONS
* The government
prohibits forced and bonded labour by children but is unable to
enforce this prohibition effectively. (EI,
EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector,
1998)
|
| Comoros
|
- |
| Congo
|
GENERAL NOTES
AND OBSERVATIONS
* There are
reports of pygmy-children enslaved by Congolese patrons.
(EI,
EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector,
1998)
|
| Congo,
Dem. Rep. |
GENERAL
NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS
* Insurgent groups
from neighbouring countries have abducted a number of Congolese children
to be labour or sex slaves, or to serve in the military. (US
Dept. of State, Trafficking in Persons Report, July 12, 2001)
|
| Cook
Islands |
- |
| Costa
Rica |
- |
| Cote
d'Ivoire |
GENERAL
NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS
* Thousands of Malian children were trafficked and sold into indentured
servitude on Ivorian plantations. In September 1998, a private Abidjan
daily newspaper exposed the widespread practice of importing and indenturing
Malian boys for field work on Ivorian plantations under abusive conditions.
Mali was not the only source of forced child labour used in the country.
(US
Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25
February 2000)
* Children from
Benin have been taken to Nigeria, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, and Gabon,
and sold into servitude in agriculture, as domestics, or as prostitutes.
(US
Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999,
25 February 2000, citing Benin press)
|
| Croatia
|
GENERAL
NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS
* The Ministry
of Social Welfare enforces the ban on coerced labour. No cases have
been reported.
(US
Dept of State, Human Rights Report, 1998)
|
| Cuba
|
GENERAL NOTES
AND OBSERVATIONS
* The government
prohibits forced and bonded labour by children, however, the government
requires children to work without compensation. All students over
age 11 are expected to devote 30 to 45 days of their summer vacation
to farm work, labouring up to 8 hours per day.
(US
Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999,
25 February 2000)
|
| Cyprus
|
GENERAL NOTES
AND OBSERVATIONS
* Legal protection
against oppressive practices are generally observed.
(US
Dept of State, Human Rights Report, 1998)
|
| Czech
Republic |
GENERAL NOTES
AND OBSERVATIONS
* No cases of
forced child labour are reported.
(US
Dept of State, Human Rights Report, 1998)
|
| Denmark
|
GENERAL NOTES
AND OBSERVATIONS
* No instances
of forced child labour are cited.
(US
Dept of State, Human Rights Report, 1998)
|
| Djibouti
|
- |
| Dominica
|
- |
| Dominican
Republic |
GENERAL NOTES
AND OBSERVATIONS
* The Lawyers'
Committee for Human Rights stated in 1991 that the Dominican government
actively encourages forced labour by children on sugar plantations.
(EI,
EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector,
1998)
|
| East
Timor |
- |
| Ecuador
|
GENERAL NOTES
AND OBSERVATIONS
* The law prohibits
forced or bonded labour by children, and there were no reports of
such practices. (US
Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999,
25 February 2000)
* Children
are being trafficked from Ecuador to Venezuela. The children work
in virtual slavery conditions as street vendors, domestic workers
and prostitutes. They are abducted, sold by parents or lured by
false promises. (CATW
Fact Book, citing Vladimir Villegas, Congressional Human Rights
Commission, Estrella Gutierrez, "Child Traffic in Venezuela Tip
of the Iceberg", IPS, 11 January 1998)
|
| Egypt
|
GENERAL NOTES
AND OBSERVATIONS
* Children in
carpet factories are working under slave-like conditions.
(EI,
EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector,
1998)
|
| El
Salvador |
NATIONAL
STATISTICS
* The report
on the State of the Nation in Human Development of El Salvador (Estado
de la Nación en Desarrollo humano de El Salvador ,1999) emphasizes
that hundreds of girls from El Salvador are taken illegally to Guatemala
with the promise to be employed as domestics and end up exploited
and forced to be prostitutes. The procurer of the girls in Guatemala
qualifies their situation as "slavery". According to the
NGO Casa Alianza , the number of girls from El Salvador in this
situation could be as high as 2,000. (DNI,
"La prevención y eliminación de las peores formas
de trabajo infantil y adolescente un reto para la democracia y el
desarrollo humano." DNI- Costa Rica, 2001)
|
| Equatorial
Guinea |
- |
| Eritrea
|
- |
| Estonia
|
- |
| Ethiopia
|
GENERAL NOTES
AND OBSERVATIONS
* Involuntary
servitude and slavery were officially abolished in 1942, but there
are numerous anecdotal accounts of young people, especially girls,
being sent by their families into involuntary servitude in Saudi
Arabia and other Arabian Peninsula states to work as house servants
and nannies, some of whom are kept in bondage.
(EI,
EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector,
1998)
|
| Fiji
|
- |
| Finland
|
GENERAL NOTES
AND OBSERVATIONS
* No cases of
forced child labour have been reported.
(US
Dept of State, Human Rights Report, 1998)
|
| France
|
GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS
* Trafficking
for domestic slavery is present. (US
Dept. of State, Trafficking in Persons Report, July 12, 2001)
* Some diplomats have domestic slaves. They are usually foreign
nationals and diplomats from places where slavery already exists,
such as the Gulf and North Africa, but also include native French.
(American Anti-Slavery Group, Jesse
Sage, e-mail to GMIS, 6 November 2000, citing Kevin Bales, Disposable
People)
|
| Gabon
|
GENERAL
NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS
* Children from
Benin have been taken to Nigeria, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, and Gabon,
and sold into servitude in agriculture, as domestics, or as prostitutes.
(US
Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999,
25 February 2000, citing Benin press)
|
| Gambia
|
- |
| Georgia
|
GENERAL NOTES
AND OBSERVATIONS
* No cases of
forced child labour have been reported.
(US
Dept of State, Human Rights Report, 1998)
|
| Germany
|
GENERAL NOTES
AND OBSERVATIONS
* No reports
of forced child labour have been filed.
(US
Dept of State, Human Rights Report, 1998)
|
| Ghana
|
NATIONAL
STATISTICS
* At least 2,510
women and girls are bound to shrines through the localised Trokosi
system. (US
Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999,
25 February 2000)
*
Over 100 boys were reportedly contracted out to Lake Volta fishermen.
(US
Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999,
25 February 2000)
GENERAL
NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS
* There have
been newspaper reports of children being sold into slavery for either
sexual exploitation or labour, such as 10- to 12-year-old boys toiling
in the service of fisherman in exchange for a yearly remittance
to their families. A June 1999, report described this practice as
rampant in 156 fishing villages along the Afram River and settlements
along the Volta Lake in the Afram plains. (US
Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000,
February 2001)
* The Constitution
prohibits slavery, but it exists on a limited scale. Trokosi, a
traditional practice is a system in which a young girl, usually
under the age of 10, is made a slave to a fetish shrine for offenses
allegedly committed by a member of the girl's family. In rare instances,
boys are offered. The belief is that, if someone in that family
has committed a crime, such as stealing, members of the family may
begin to die in large numbers unless a young girl is given to the
local fetish shrine to atone for the offense. The girl becomes the
property of the fetish priest, must work on the priest's farm, and
perform other labour for him. (US
Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999,
25 February 2000)
|
| Greece
|
GENERAL NOTES
AND OBSERVATIONS
* There is a
rising phenomenon of 'children in the street' the majority of whom
carry out forms of forced labour.
(EFCW, Children Who Work in Europe,
June 1998)
|
| Guatemala
|
- |
| Guinea
|
GENERAL
NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS
* Many families
entrust their children, mainly boys aged 5 or 6, to the care of
a religious leader, or marabout, with whom the boys live until the
age of 15-16. The children perform various tasks in the marabout's
school or household. Begging is considered to be part of the child's
learning process. (CWA,
"Child Prostitution in Vietnam", Child Workers in Asia,
Vol. 10, No. 3, July -September 1994)
|
| Guinea-Bissau
|
- |
| Guyana
|
- |
| Haiti
|
NATIONAL
STATISTICS
* 'Restavek',
the practice of sending children to serve as unpaid domestic labour
for more affluent city dwellers, exists in the country. UNICEF estimated
that 25,000 to 300,000 children, 85% of them girls, are victims
of this practice. (US
Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999,
25 February 2000)
* Restavek
is a prevalent feature of Haitian society. The 1984 Conference Report
estimated that 109,000 Haitian children worked as restaveks, 65,000
girls and 44,000 boys. If 109,000 children is an accurate figure
today, 5% of Haitian children between the age of 5 and 18 works
as domestics. (Minnesota
Lawyer International Human Rights Committee, Restavek: Child Domestic
Labour in Haiti, August 1990, citing E.Clesca, La domesticite juvenile
est elle une consequence du sous development ou le produit de la
mentalite d 'un peuple)
|
| Honduras
|
- |
| Hungary
|
GENERAL
NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS
* Forced labour
is prohibited by law. (US
Dept of State, Human Rights Report, 1998)
|
| Iceland
|
GENERAL
NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS
* No cases of
forced child labour have been recorded.
(US
Dept of State, Human Rights Report, 1998)
|
| India
|
NATIONAL
STATISTICS
* There are
no universally accepted figures for the number of bonded child labourers.
However, in the carpet industry alone, human rights organisations
estimate that there may be as many as 300,000 children working,
many of them under conditions that amount to bonded labour.
(US
Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999,
25 February 2000)
* The labour
commissioner estimated that there were 3,000 bonded child labourers
in the Magadi silk twining factories in Karnataka. (US
Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999,
25 February 2000)
* Some NGOs
estimate that the number of bonded labourers is 5 million persons.
However, in a report released during the year, Human Rights Watch
estimated that 40 million persons, including 15 million children,
are bonded labourers. The report notes that the majority of bonded
labourers are Dalits, and that bondage is passed from one generation
to the next. (US
Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999,
25 February 2000)
* There are 5 million
adult bonded labourers and 10 million child bonded labourers.
(ILO-IPEC,
Mainstreaming Gender in IPEC Activities, 1999)
* An estimated
15 million children are working under bondage. But other estimates
suggest there are 15 million alone in agriculture. (ILO-IPEC,
Mainstreaming Gender in IPEC Activities, 1999)
*
Human Rights Watch estimates that there are 300,000 children working
in the carpet industry, 270,000 of whom are bonded labourers. (US
Dept of Labor, Sweat and Toil of Children: Consumer Labels and Child
Labor, 1997)
* 10 million
children were in bondage in 1996. (Volunteers
for Social Justice, Jai Singh, statement to the UN Working Group
on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, June 1996)
LOCAL
STATISTICS
* 15% of the
100,000 children working in the carpet industry of Uttar Pradesh
are in debt-bondage. (ILO-IPEC,
Mainstreaming Gender in IPEC Activities, 1999)
* 70-80% of
the 8,000 to 50,000 children in the glass industry in Ferozabad
are bonded. (ILO-IPEC,
Mainstreaming Gender in IPEC Activities, 1999)
* 30-40% children
in the match and fireworks industry are bonded. (ILO-IPEC,
Mainstreaming Gender in IPEC Activities, 1999)
* Half of 100,000
girl prostitutes between 10-14 in Bombay are from Nepal and kept
in brothels against their will. (Penelope
Saunders, "Sexual Trafficking and Forced Prostitution of Children",
29 October 1998)
* A report prepared
by advocate Mohammed Siraj Sait and NGO activist Dr Felix Sugirtharaj
submitted in the Supreme Court in February 1996 estimates that there
are some 1 million bonded labourers in Tamil Nadu. Bonded labour
was found to exist in substantial numbers in all the 23 districts
of Tamil Nadu and in over 20 occupations. The largest proportion
of those in bondage were adult men, with the largest single group
working in agriculture and the next largest in stone quarries. It
was found that the largest numbers of bonded children were in four
industries: silk-weaving, growing flowers, silver work and rolling
bidi (local cigars). In the age group below 15, accounting for almost
10% of all those in bondage, there were almost as many girls as
boys. (UN Working Group
on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, June 1996)
ADULT STATISTICS
* 90% of the
100,000 women in prostitution in Bombay are indentured slaves. (CATW
Fact Book, citing Robert I. Freidman, "India's Shame: Sexual Slavery
and Political Corruption are leading to an AIDS Catastrophe", The
Nation, 8 April 1996)
* Over 10-20
million people are subjected to debt-bondage largely in India, Bolivia,
Brazil, Peru and Philippines. (Debt Bondage:
The Challenge for the Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery,
submission to the UN Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery,
June 1996)
* There are
15 million bonded workers. (UNICEF,
Atlas of South Asian Children and Women, 1996)
GENERAL
NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS
* Domestic
media reported that child labourers were being sold in an organised
ring at the annual Sonepur cattle fair in Bihar. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)
* In West Bengal,
the organised traffic in illegal Bangladeshi immigrants is a source
of bonded labour. (US
Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999,
25 February 2000)
* Persons sometimes
are sold into virtual slavery. Many boys, some of whom are as young
as 4, end up as riders in camel races in West Asia and the Gulf
States, especially in the United Arab Emirates, or begging during
the Haj. Girls and women end up either as domestic workers or sex
workers. (US
Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999,
25 February 2000)
* In the following
industries, there is a reasonable basis to believe that products
were produced using forced or indentured child labour: brassware;
hand-knotted wool carpets; explosive fireworks; footwear; hand-blown
glass bangles; hand-made locks; hand-dipped matches; hand-broken
quarried stones; hand-spun silk thread and hand-loomed silk cloth;
hand-made bricks and bidis (hand-rolled cigarettes).
(US
Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999,
25 February 2000)
* There are
element of bonded labour in the gem industry. Parents of 80% of
children who worked full time had taken loans against their children's
labour. (ICFTU, "Union
Investigation Reveals Dirty End of the Diamond and Precious Stone
Business", 1997)
* A large number
of bonded children were found working in 4 industries i.e. silk
weaving, flower growing, silver work and rolling bidis. ("India
court investigation reveal scale of bonded labour", UN Working Group
on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, June 1996)
* It takes
up to 15 years for girls held in prostitution via debt-bondage to
purchase their freedom. (Robert I. Freidman, "India's Shame: Sexual
Slavery and Political Corruption Are Leading to an AIDS Catastrophe",
The Nation, 8 April 1996)
* Bonded child
labour is evident in the Indian carpet industry.
(US
Dept of Labor, Sweat and Toil of Children, 1994)
|
| Indonesia
|
GENERAL NOTES
AND OBSERVATIONS
* Several thousand
children are forced to work on fishing platforms off the east coast
of North Sumatra in conditions of bonded labour. They live in isolation
on the sea and work 12 to 20 hours per day.
(US
Dept of State, Human Rights Report, 1998)
|
| Iran
|
GENERAL
NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS
* No information
on laws against forced child labour and such practices.
(US
Dept of State, Human Rights Report, 1998)
|
| Iraq
|
GENERAL
NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS
* No information
about forced child labour is available.
(US
Dept of State, Human Rights Report, 1998)
|
| Ireland
|
GENERAL
NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS
* Effective
enforcement of laws against forced labour are undertaken.
(US
Dept of State, Human Rights Report, 1998)
|
| Israel
|
GENERAL
NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS
* Forced child labour
does not exist. (US
Dept of State, Human Rights Report, 1998)
* Women trafficked
from Eastern Europe, were stripped and sold naked as slaves to Tel
Aviv traders. (CATW
Fact Book, citing The New York Times, 11 January 1998)
|
| Italy
|
GENERAL
NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS
* Trafficking in women and girls for prostitution and forced labour
to Italy is a growing problem. The women and girls are usually from Albania,
Nigeria, former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
(US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)
* In Milan, women
abducted from the countries of the former Soviet Union were auctioned.
(CATW
Fact Book, citing Michael Specter, "Traffickers' New Cargo: Naïve
Slavic Women", New York Times, 11 January 1998)
* According
to the Council of Europe, Roma children are smuggled into Italy
from the former Yugoslavia to work as forced labourers in gangs
where they are trained and then sold into crime rings in large cities.
(EI,
EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector,
1998)
|
| Jamaica
|
- |
| Japan
|
GENERAL
NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS
* Forced or bonded labour does not occur in general, but women are trafficked
to Japan and coerced into prostitution.
(US
Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25
February 2000)
* In recent years
there has been a surge in the smuggling of illegal immigrants from China.
These illegal immigrants often are held in debt-bondage to make them pay
off the smugglers. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)
|
| Jordan
|
GENERAL
NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS
* Forced labour is constitutionally prohibited except in occasion
of war or natural disaster. No cases involving children are known
to exist. < | |