Other Hazardous Child Labour

 
Country Hazardous Child Labour
Afghanistan

GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS

* Children between 6 and 14 years of age, often work to support their families by collecting paper and firewood, shining shoes, begging or collecting scrap metal from the street debris in the cities. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)

Albania

ASSORTED STATISTICS

* Around 300 children are on the streets of Tirana selling cigarettes, sweets etc. (CRCA, Dr. Aurela Pano, Albanian Children and Children's Rights in Albania, 04/11/1999)

SPECIFIC SECTORS

* Street Vending - In Tirana and other cities, it is common to see children selling cigarettes and other items on the street. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001)

* Begging - Within the country, Romani children often work as beggars. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)

Algeria

SPECIFIC SECTORS

* Street Vending - Economic necessity compels many children to resort to informal employment, such as street vending. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)

Andorra -
Angola

LOCAL STATISTICS

* The UNICEF in 1998 estimated that there were approximately 5,000 street children in Luanda. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001 citing UNICEF)

GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS

* Street children shine shoes, wash cars, and carry water, but many resort to petty crime, begging, and prostitution in order to survive. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001)

Antigua and Barbuda -
Argentina

SPECIFIC SECTORS

* Commercial Agriculture - In a 1997 report, UNICEF stated that of 252,000 children between the ages of 6 and 14, 68,500 employed in the rural areas, principally harvesting tea and tobacco. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)

* Mechanic Workshops - Of the 400 workers in mechanic workshop in the city of Santiago of Esteco, 10% are below 14 years. (ILO-IPEC, El trabajo infantil en Argentina, 1994)

* Street Children - A study by UNICEF speculates the existence of some 30,000 street children in the urban centres of the country. (ILO-IPEC, El trabajo infantil en Argentina, 1994)

Armenia

SPECIFIC SECTORS

* Street Children - Street children remain a significant problem. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)

Australia

ASSORTED STATISTICS

* Children are working in horrific conditions and more than 1,600 child workers being seriously injured or maimed each year. ("Aussie sweatshops using child labour", The Straits Times, 27 October, 1998, citing a joint investigation by The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age newspapers)

SPECIFIC SECTORS

* Chimney Sweeping - It is still legal to send young children up the chimneys in New South Wales and in Victoria, and to put children as young as 7 to work for eight hours between 6.00 am and 11.00 pm, as long as a permit has been obtained. (Phil Gardner, "Child labour: A growth industry of the 1990s", World Socialist Web Site, 21 November 1998)

* Garment Manufacturing - Several children were discovered in clothing sweatshops in Sydney and Melbourne. (US Dept of State, Human Rights Report, 1999)

* Garment Manufacturing - An estimated 70,000 children working up to 20 hours or more a week in backyard sweatshops in the clothing industry, exposed to hazards. ("Aussie sweatshops using child labour", The Straits Times, Singapore, 27 October 1998)

* Garment Manufacturing - The Textile Clothing and Footwear Union estimates that 82,500 children under 16 years of age are now working in the clothing industry, usually at home alongside their parents, out of a total workforce of 329 000. (Phil Gardner, "Child labour : A growth industry of the 1990s", World Socialist Web Site, 21 November 1998)

* Garment Manufacturing - Some 36,000 children are toiling in the backyard garment industry in Victoria. (Phil Gardner, "Child labour : A growth industry of the 1990s", World Socialist Web Site, 21 November 1998)

* Retail Sector - A major sector where children are employed in large number is the retail industry. (Phil Gardner, "Child labour : A growth industry of the 1990s", World Socialist Web Site, 21 November 1998)

Austria -
Azerbaijan

SPECIFIC SECTORS

* Begging - Children beg on the streets of Baku and other towns. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)

Bahamas -
Bahrain

GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS

* Some children work in the market areas as car washers and porters. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)

Bangladesh

NATIONAL STATISTICS

* A research report conducted in six divisional cities shows that children are involved in 430 types of economic activities and 67 activities out of them are hazardous. Thirty (30) organizations are proving different services to 11,15,725 children in six divisions. (BSAF, Situation of Child Labor Report - 2001)

ASSORTED STATISTICS

* The government of Bangladesh performed a survey of 1,821 factories and found that half of them employed children. In these factories, 10,500 children were working and 40% of the children were between the ages of 10 and 12. (UNICEF, State of the World's Children, 1997)

GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS

* Children drive rickshaws, break bricks at construction sites, carry fruit, vegetables, and dry goods for shoppers at markets, work at tea stalls, and work as beachcombers in the shrimp industry. (US Dept of State, Human Rights Report, 2000)

* Children are labouring in garment factories and engineering workshops, in the construction sector, as bus or tempo (three-wheeler transport) helpers, in the bidi factories, as roadside restaurant workers and street vendors and in tea plantations and other agricultural sectors. (Nishanthi Priyangika, "Child labour on the increase in Bangladesh", World Socialist Web Site, 3/11/1999)

* There are some 40 industries in Bangladesh, which use child labour, often under hazardous conditions and with little regard for health and safety. (Nishanthi Priyangika, "Child labour on the increase in Bangladesh", World Socialist Web Site, 3/11/1999, citing UNICEF's Asian Child Labour Report, 1999)

* In urban areas, around 43% of child workers are day labourers, in a wide range of occupations including construction, manufacturing, factory, hotel/restaurant and domestic work. (An Alternative Report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, submission to the UN CRC, 1997)

* Children work in chemical, metal factories. (ICFTU, No Time to Play, 1996)

SPECIFIC SECTORS

* Begging - Increasing children found begging have come to Thailand from countries like Cambodia, Burma and Bangladesh. These children are usually between 6-10, years who have either travelled to Thailand on their own or were brought by beggar gangs and agents. (ILO-IPEC, Children in Prostitution, Pornography and Illicit Activities, September 1999)

* Bidi Industry - The children are forced to engage themselves in bidi production at early age of their life. The average entry level of age is 7.66. The average age of entry level of male and female children in bidi producing is 7.79 and 7.55 years respectively. (ILO, Md. Omar Farrukh, Report on Child Labour in Bidi Industry in Rangpur District, June 2001)

* Bidi Industry - The total number of bidi labour in the survey area in 26,982; of them 15544 is child labour. This indicates that about 58% of the total work force is children while remaining 42% are adult workers engaged in the process of bidi production. 7,413 male and 8,131 female. (ILO, Md. Omar Farrukh, Report on Child Labour in Bidi Industry in Rangpur District, June 2001)

* Bidi Rolling - Many children work in the bidi (hand-rolled cigarette) industry. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)

* Camel Jockey - Some children are also trafficked to the Middle East to work as camel jockeys. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)

* Camel Jockey - Bangladeshi children are used as camel jockeys, a cruel and dangerous 'sport' popular on the Arabian Peninsula. (EI, EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector, 1998)

* Camel Jockey - Possibly about 50 to 100 boys, aged about 8 to 15, some even younger, are being trafficked from Bangladesh to the Gulf countries for use as drivers for camel races. Offering sexual favours is a secondary activity in most instances. (CWA, Brother Jarlath de Souza, "Trafficking in Children: Bangladesh", Child Workers in Asia, Vol. 12, No. 3, July - September 1996)

* Construction - 30% of construction workers are minors. (ICFTU, No Time to Play, 1996)

* Shrimp Farming - Children involved in collecting shrimp fry shrimp larvae. (US Dept of State, Human Rights Report, 1998, citing Grameen Trust, "Effects of Shrimp Fry Collection on Primary Education", 1995) .

* Leather Tanning - Virtually all of the 300 leather tanneries in Dhaka, employed young boys. (Nishanthi Priyangika, "Child labour on the increase in Bangladesh", World Socialist Web Site, 3/11/1999, citing a study by Professor A.J. Weeramunda of the University of Colombo)

* Leather Tanning - Children under 18 years sometimes work in hazardous circumstances in the leather industry. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)

Barbados -
Belarus -
Belgium -
Belize

SPECIFIC SECTORS

* Commercial Agriculture - In rural areas, children are reported to be involved in agriculture-they work in the sugarcane, citrus, banana and rice industries. (ILO Caribbean Office, Country Profile: Belize, February 1999)

* Street Children - The police and the Department of Women's Affairs both estimate that there are just over 100 street children. (ILO Caribbean Office, Country Profile: Belize, February 1999)

* Street Vending - Growing number of children can be seen selling newspapers, snacks and other items on the street. (ILO Caribbean Office, Country Profile: Belize, February 1999)

 

Benin

 

SPECIFIC SECTORS

* Street Vending - Children commonly work as street vendors. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001)

GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS

* In February one report estimated that 75% of apprentices working as seamstresses, hairdressers, carpenters, and mechanics were younger than 15 years of age. Most of these apprentices are also under the legal age of 14 for apprenticeship. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001)

Bhutan

SPECIFIC SECTORS

* Construction - A UNICEF study suggested that children as young as 11 are sometimes employed with road-building teams. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)

Bolivia

GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS

* Urban children sell goods, shine shoes, and assist transport operators. Rural children often work with parents from an early age. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)

* Practices of child apprenticeship and agricultural servitude by indigenous workers exist in the country. 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 SPECIFIC SECTORS

* Begging - There have been credible but unconfirmed reports that children are trafficked to work in begging rings. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001)
Botswana -
Brazil

ASSORTED STATISTICS

* The government estimates that 60,000 children work in unhealthy conditions. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)

* About 7,860 children and adolescents in eight cities in Rio de Janeiro are working in painful and unhealthy conditions according to ILO. (Child Labour in Brazil, 10 August 1998)

GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS

* Many children are forced by economic necessity to work alongside their parents in cane fields, cutting hemp, or feeding wood into charcoal ovens; frequent accidents, unhealthy working conditions, and squalor are common in these cases. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)

* Children work in industries, like leather processing, gold and tin mining, distilleries, plastics, and on tea plantations. (EI, EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector, 1998)

* Child labour exists in wood pulp, handicrafts, electronic, leather processing and gold mining industries. (US Dept of Labor, Sweat and Toil of Children, 1994)

SPECIFIC SECTORS

* Begging - Many children beg on the streets of cities. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)

* Charcoal Production - 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)

* Commercial Agriculture - Sugar cane growers illegally employ children and adolescents ranging from 7 to 17 years of age, many cutting cane with machetes. The charcoal industry, hemp cultivators in the northeast, and orange growers are using illegal child labour. Children also perform various tasks in the mining and logging industries in the Amazon region. In addition, although both the Government and the industry have made strong efforts to eliminate it, there is still some child labour in the shoe industry. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)

* Commercial Agriculture - In Brazil's tea plantations, children can be found working from the age of seven. (ABC-CLIO, Sandy Hobbs et al, Child Labor: A World History Companion, 1999)

* Commercial Agriculture - Considerable numbers of children work under conditions approximating forced labour or debt-bondage on plantations. (EI, EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector, 1998)

* Commercial Agriculture - A report published by the Sergipe state government in 1997 stated that 10,000 children and adolescents between the age of 6 and 18 were part of the labour force in the orange-growing region, with 54 % between the ages of 7 and 14. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)

* Commercial Agriculture - An estimated 3 million children are engaged in the plantations. (US Dept of Labor, Sweat and Toil of Children: Agricultural Imports & Forced and Bonded Child Labour, 1995)

* Commercial Agriculture - 10% of 15,000 are under 18 in the municipality of Sertaozinho in the Sugar Cane Plantations. (ICFTU, No Time to Play, 1996)

* Commercial Agriculture - In the state of Pernambuco, nearly 54,000 children between 7 and 13 work in sugar cane fields. (SEJUP website, citing Folha de Sao Paulo)

  * Commercial Agriculture - 150,000 children are employed in orange harvesting. (US Dept of Labor, Sweat and Toil of Children: Efforts to Eliminate Child Labour, 1998)

* Footwear Manufacturing - Of the 7,000 persons working in the sub-contracting of shoe parts, 1,300 were children under the legal age of 14. (US Dept of Labor, Sweat and Toil of Children, 1994, citing CIA, World Fact Book, 1993)

* Footwear Manufacturing - Child Labour is rampant in home-based and sub-contracting operations in Brazil's two major footwear producing regions. (US Dept of Labor, Sweat and Toil of Children: Consumer Labels and Child Labor, 1997)

* Garment Manufacturing - More than half of the children under the age of 14 are employed in the clothing and textile industry as weavers who sometimes operate heavy industrial machinery. (US Dept of Labor, Sweat and Toil of Children, 1994, citing "Child labour accounts for 18% of work force", AP, 2 January 1994)

* Mining and Quarrying - Considerable numbers of children work under conditions approximating forced labour or debt-bondage in the mining industry. (EI, EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector, 1998)

* Mining and Quarrying - Of the 3,500 people working in tin-ore mine in the state of Rondonia States, 600 were children. (US Dept of Labor, Sweat and Toil of Children, 1994, citing report by the Brazilian National Department for Mineral Production)

* Scavenging - UNICEF estimates that 50,000 children pick through trash dumps to generate income for their families. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2001, March 2002)

* Street Children - There are no reliable figures on the number of street children and child beggars nationwide, but a conservative estimate states that there are 30,000 in Rio de Janeiro and 12,000 in Sao Paulo. (EI, EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector, 1998)

* Street Children - In Sao Paulo, NGOs aiding street children estimated that some 12,000 children roam the streets by day, and about 3,000 to 5,000 of them live permanently on the streets. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)

Brunei Darussalam -
Bulgaria

GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS

* Bulgarian street children work in begging, waste material collection, prostitution, theft and other odd jobs. (EFCW, Children Who Work in Europe, June 1998)

Burkina Faso

GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS

* A study has shown that children are trafficked from Togo to Burkina Faso for use as market traders and child beggars. (WAO-Afrique, Child Trafficking in West and Central Africa, submission to the UN Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, June 1999)

SPECIFIC SECTORS

* Begging - A study has shown that children are trafficked from Togo to Burkina Faso for use as domestic servants, market traders, child beggars and prostitutes. (WAO-Afrique, Child Trafficking in West and Central Africa, submission to the UN Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, June 1999)

* Mining and Quarrying - Children working in small scale gold mines. (ILO, Small-scale Mines, 1999, citing unpublished ILO-IPEC Survey of Child Workers in Small-scale Gold Mining, 1998)

Burma (Myanmar)

GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS

* In the urban informal sector, child workers are found mostly in food processing, selling, refuse collecting, light manufacturing, and as tea shop attendants. According to government statistics, 6% of urban children work, but only 4% of those earn wages. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001)

* Exploitative and dangerous forms of child labour had been widely reported, including work on infrastructure development projects, in military support operations, and in the sex industry. (US Dept of State, Report On Labour Practices In Burma, 2000)

* The Special Rapporteur also noted that children were often forced to work on military bases constructing or maintaining barracks, bunkers or fences, or performing menial tasks such as cleaning, weeding, and fetching firewood and water. (US Dept of State, Report On Labour Practices In Burma, 2000)

* Hundreds of cases in which forced labour was exacted during August 1998-May 1999 for portering, military camp work, sentry duty, and other support work for the military all over Kayin (Karen) State, Kayah State, Pegu Division, Arakan State, Shan State, Chin State and Tanintharyi (Tenasserim) Division. The cases include allegations that women and children were used as human mine sweepers and shields. (US Dept of State, Report On Labour Practices In Burma, 2000)

* In 1996, there were almost 200,000 foreign children from Burma, Laos and Cambodia who had been trafficked in to Thailand for prostitution and work at construction sites and sweatshops. (CATW Fact Book, citing "Trafficking of children on the rise", Bangkok Post, 22 July 1998, citing IPSR)

* Girls are particularly sought after in such areas as the making of lacquer-ware, embroideries (kalaga), cigarettes and cigars and gem polishing. Boys meanwhile, work in the construction and domestic labour sectors as well as in markets, restaurants and as petty vendors along railway tracks. (Human Rights Watch/Asia, "Burma: Children's Rights and the Rule of the Law", submission to the UN CRC, January 1997)

SPECIFIC SECTORS

* Begging - Increasing numbers of children found begging have come to Thailand from countries like Cambodia, Burma and Bangladesh. These children are usually between 6-10 years who either travelled to Thailand on their own or were brought by beggar gangs and agents.(ILO-IPEC, Children in Prostitution, Pornography and Illicit Activities, September 1999)

* Brick Breaking - Almost 200 children are allegedly being forced to split stones. (US Dept of State, Report On Labour Practices In Burma, 2000)

* Commercial Agriculture - The COI Report included allegations that child labour was used to cultivate or produce a variety of goods including beans, bricks, fish, rice, shrimp, and wood and an NGO recently reported that children have been forced to work alongside men on tiger prawn farms. (US Dept of State, Report On Labour Practices In Burma, 2000)

* Construction - Many children, usually between the age of 13-15 years, are forced to help maintain dams in Maungdaw. Fathers often send their children to work in their place, and children are required to go if there are no adult males in the family. (US Dept of State, Report On Labour Practices In Burma, 2000)

* Construction - Many women and children were forced to work on constructing four major dykes in the Yebu township. (US Dept of State, Report On Labour Practices In Burma, 2000)

* Construction - Children from 8-15 years of age made up approximately 10% of the workforce on a temple construction project in northern Kunhing. (US Dept of State, Report On Labour Practices In Burma, 2000)

* Construction - An April 1999 report by the Shan Human Rights Foundation stated that military authorities in Kunhing township were forcing many children, some as young as 7-8 years old, to break stones for paving roads. (US Dept of State, Report On Labour Practices In Burma, 2000)

* Construction - In Tada-Oo Township, the Chairman stated that everyone, including children, had been recruited to build a 20-mile road between Myo Tha Town and Tada-Oo Town, which is scheduled to open at the end of 1999. (US Dept of State, Report On Labour Practices In Burma, 2000)

* Construction - In 1996, there were almost 200,000 foreign children from Burma, Laos and Cambodia who had been trafficked into Thailand for prostitution and work at construction sites and sweatshops. (CATW Fact Book, citing "Trafficking of children on the rise", Bangkok Post, 22 July 1998, citing IPSR)

* Restaurants and Hotels - There is an increase in the number of children working in hotels and restaurants in the tourism sector. (Human Rights Watch/Asia, "Burma: Children's Rights and the Rule of the Law", submission to the UN CRC, January 1997)

* Street Children - There are an estimated 10,000 street children between 5-15 years. (ILO, Protecting Children in the World of Work, October 1997)

* Portering - Women and children are randomly picked by 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

* In rural areas, children under the age of 16 do heavy manual labour. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)

Cambodia

GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS

* Children are employed as construction workers, road builders and rubber plantation workers. (ILO-IPEC, Child Labour in Cambodia, 1998)

* Children are employed in restaurants and as boat drivers. (ILO-IPEC, Child Labour in Cambodia, 1998)

* Children are employed in salt fields, fish processing plants, shrimp peeling factories, cement factories and brick factories. (ILO-IPEC, Child Labour in Cambodia, 1998)

* Children work as tour guides, street vendors, stone-breakers, and drink sellers. (ILO-IPEC, Child Labour in Cambodia, 1998)

SPECIFIC SECTORS

* Begging - Increasing children found begging have come to Thailand from countries like Cambodia, Burma and Bangladesh. These children are usually between 6-10 years who have either travelled to Thailand on their own or were brought by beggar gangs and agents. (ILO-IPEC, Children in Prostitution, Pornography and Illicit Activities, September 1999)

* Begging - 500 children have been trafficked to Thailand for begging. (ILO-IPEC, Trafficking in children for labour exploitation in Mekong Sub-region, July 1998)

* Begging - Of the 1,060 child beggars in Thailand in 1997, 95% were Cambodians. (Kyodo News Service)

* Construction - In 1996, there were almost 200,000 foreign children from Burma, Laos and Cambodia who had been trafficked into Thailand for prostitution and work at construction sites and sweatshops. (CATW Fact Book, citing "Trafficking of children on the rise", Bangkok Post, 22 July 1998, citing IPSR)

* Street Children - Domestic NGOs estimate that there are more than 10,000 street children in Phnom Penh alone, who are easy targets for sexual abuse and exploitation. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)

* Street Children - 6,000 children work on the streets of Phnom Penh, as porters, in small workshops, or as beggars. (ILO-IPEC, Child Labour in Cambodia, 1998)

Cameroon

GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS

* In the South and East Provinces Baka, pygmies, including children, continued to be subjected to unfair and exploitative labour practices. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)

SPECIFIC SECTORS

* Agriculture - Trafficking in children, which is always a problem, continues to be the subject of considerable media coverage in Benin. Most victims are abducted or leave home with traffickers who promise educational opportunities or other incentives. They are taken to places in foreign countries, (according to the press, principally 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)

* Street Vending - Many urban street vendors are under 14 years of age. (US Dept of State, Human Rights Report, 1998)

Canada

SPECIFIC SECTORS

* Garment Manufacturing - 20% of garment home-workers are children. (IWGCL, Working Children: Reconsidering the Debates, 1998)

Cape Verde -
Central African Republic -
Chad -
Chile

GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS

* Children are engaged in sugar-cane, coal-mining, ceramics and fireworks. (IWGCL, Working Children: Reconsidering the Debates, 1998)

China

GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS

* Children are trafficked to Thailand for prostitution and sweatshop work. (ILO-IPEC, Child Labour: Trends and Challenges in Asia, August 1997)

* Children are reportedly working in the fireworks industry, garment and textile industry. (US Dept of Labor, Sweat and Toil of Children, 1994, citing AAFLI, China: Labour Notes, February/March 1994)

* There is use of child labour in toy, sporting equipment and game factories. (US Dept of Labor, Sweat and Toil of Children, 1994)

SPECIFIC SECTORS

* Footwear Manufacturing - Child labour in the footwear industry is identified to be a growing practice. Children of 13-15 age group are found working in Wellco - a sub unit of Nike in Ponggvan. (US Dept of Labor, Sweat and Toil of Children: Consumer Labels and Child Labor, 1997, citing AMRC and Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee, "Working Conditions in Sports Shoe Factories in China, Making Shoes for Nike and Reebok", 1997)

China,
Hong Kong SAR 		-
China,
Macau SAR 		-
China,
Taiwan 		-
Colombia

GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS

* Children work in industries like, agribusiness, coal mining, leather tanning and brick kilns. (EI, EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector, 1998)

* The Committee is concerned at the high rate of child labour, particularly in arduous and unhealthy occupations such as brick-making and mining. (UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties: Colombia, 1996)

* Hazardous child labour, including that in mines, is a matter of the deepest concern. (UN CRC, Comments on Colombia, 1995)

SPECIFIC SECTORS

* Commercial Agriculture - 700,000 children worked as coca pickers. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)

* Commercial Agriculture - A 1996 study by the National Human Rights Ombudsman of Child Labour in Putumayo department found that 22 % of the children between the ages of 5 and 18 were full-time coca-pickers. In another municipality the figures reached 70 %. (EI, EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector, 1998)

* Cut Flower Industry - Children are commonly employed in the cut-flower industry and are often exposed to toxic substances during and after the spraying of pesticides. (EI, EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector, 1998)

* Leather Tanning - Children as young as five are employed in the leather industry. (US Dept of Labor, Sweat and Toil of Children, 1994)

* Mining and Quarrying - Coal mining presents the most difficult child labour problem. Many marginal family-run operations employ their young children as a way to boost production and income. It is estimated that between 1,200 and 2,000 children are involved. Younger children carry water and pack coal, while those aged 14 and above engage in more physically demanding labour such as carrying bags of coal. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)

* Mining and Quarrying - A recent study of the use of children in the marginal coal mines in north-western Colombia shows that children as young as six work with their families in the mines, carrying water out of the mines, leading the loaded mules and packing coal into bags. Older children do the heavier work such as drilling. (EI, EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector, 1998)

* Mining and Quarrying - Colombian government estimates put the number of child miners in the country at around 5,000. However, child welfare organisations believe this is a gross underestimate. (ABC-CLIO, Sandy Hobbs et al, Child Labor: A World History Companion, 1999, citing ICFTU, No Time to Play, 1996)

* Mining and Quarrying - Children work under hazardous conditions in the coal mines of Colombia. (US Dept of Labor, Sweat and Toil of Children, 1994)

* Street Children - Street children are a major problem in Colombia's cities. Street children employ desperate strategies to survive, 64 % were working mostly in itinerant sales, and some 17 % cited 'stealing' as their principal occupation. (EI, EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector, 1998)

* Street Children - In 1988, UNICEF confirmed that in Colombia there were 5,000 street children. Taking this as benchmark, at present the figure could be between 15,000-30,000. (Pacto por la Infancia- Republica de Colombia)

Comoros

ASSORTED NOTES

* Children generally help with the work of their families in the subsistence farming and fishing sectors. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)

Congo

ASSORTED NOTES

* Children are employed in informal sector and subsistence agriculture. (US Dept of State, Human Rights Report, 1998)

Congo, Dem. Rep.

SPECIFIC SECTORS

* Street Vending - Many children work selling small goods like gum and cigarettes on the street. (EI, EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector, 1998)

Cook Islands -
Costa Rica

SPECIFIC SECTORS

* Street Children - Although no official statistics exist, the PANI has identified street children in the urban areas of San Jose, Limon, and Puntarenas as being at the greatest risk. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)

Cote d'Ivoire

GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS

* Some children routinely act as vendors, shoe shiners, errand boys, car watchers and washers of car windows in cities. There are reliable reports of use of child labour in the informal-sector mining, and also of children working in 'sweatshop' conditions in small workshops. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)

* A study has shown that children are trafficked from Togo to the Cote d'Ivoire, for use as domestic servants, market traders, child beggars and prostitutes. (WAO-Afrique, Child Trafficking in West and Central Africa, submission to the UN Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, June 1999)

* Children work in informal sectors. (US Dept of State, Human Rights Report, 1998)

SPECIFIC SECTORS

* Commercial Agriculture - The head of a large community of migrant farmers claims that the use of children from Mali as labourers on Côte d'Ivoire's cocoa plantations is limited to remote plantations deep in the bush. The ones migrated to Yaboyo are at least 15 or 16 years of age. ("Only remote farms use child labour, farming figue says", Reuters, 6 October 2000, reprinted in CNN Webpost)

* Commercial Agriculture - In July, police in Divo broke up a ring of child traffickers, which had brought children from Burkina Faso to work on farms and plantations in Cote d'Ivoire. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)

* Commercial Agriculture - A study has shown that children are trafficked from Mali to the Cote d'Ivoire to work on agricultural plantations. (WAO-Afrique, Child Trafficking in West and Central Africa, submission to the UN Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, June 1999)

* Mining and Quarrying - Children are employed in informal-sector mining. (US Dept of State, Human Rights Report, 1998)

* Mining and Quarrying - Approximately 800 children are employed in the gold mines of Issia. (US Dept of Labor, Sweat and Toil of Children, 1994, citing DCI/UNICEF, Gabin Kponhassia, "Le Travail des Enfants dans us mines de Cote D'Ivoire", 1993)

* Mining and Quarrying - Approximately 350 children work in diamond mining in Tortiya. (US Dept of Labor, Sweat and Toil of Children, 1994)

*Restaurants - The sale of children for labour is organised around networks, which bring children from rural areas to urban centres to work for individual employers in domestic service or in commercial activities such as in restaurants. (CWA, Rokhaya Diop, "The Sale of Child Labour in Côte d'Ivoire", Child Workers in Asia, Vol. 10, No. 4, October - December 1994)

* Street Children - Cities, especially Abidjan, have large populations of street children. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)

Croatia

GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS

* Legal protection against hazardous work is available. (US Dept of State, Human Rights Report, 1998)

Cuba -
Cyprus GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS

* Young persons are found in all types of enterprises, most commonly in the construction sector, in restaurants and hotels. (EFCW, Children Who Work in Europe, June 1998)

SPECIFIC SECTORS

* Commercial Agriculture - Collecting and packing of agricultural products to a large extent is performed by young persons. (EFCW, Children Who Work in Europe, June 1998)

Czech Republic -
Denmark ASSORTED STATISTICS

* 10,000 children, mainly older boys, are employed in the industrial sector. (EFCW, Children Who Work in Europe, June 1998)

Djibouti

SPECIFIC SECTORS

* Street Vending - Many young girls are involved in selling goods on the street. (EI, EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector, 1998)

Dominica -
Dominican Republic

GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS

* Child workers are found in the fire-works industry and in sugar plantations. (EI, EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector, 1998)

East Timor -
Ecuador

GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS

* Many children under 14 years of age work in the informal sector, shining shoes, collecting and recycling garbage, or as street peddlers. (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)

SPECIFIC SECTORS

* Plantation Workers - In Ecuador, where Human Rights Watch interviewed forty-five children who had worked on banana plantations in early 2001, we learned that girls working in banana packing plants routinely experience sexual harassment in the workplace. (HRW, World Report 2001)

Egypt

ASSORTED STATISTICS

* 45,000 children are working in small workshops. (IWGCL, Working Children: Reconsidering the Debates, 1998)

GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS

* Children work as apprentices in auto-repair and craft shops, in heavier industries such as construction, in brick-making and textiles, and as workers in tanneries and carpet-making factories. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)

SPECIFIC SECTORS

* Cotton leaf plantations - In October 1999, Human Rights Watch conducted an investigation into the use of child labour in Egyptian cotton pest management Although the Child Law set the minimum age for seasonal agricultural employment at 12 years, a majority of children engaged in leaf worm control operations were below the age of 12, with a significant proportion employed from the age of 7 or 8. They worked from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. daily, with a one to two hour midday break, seven days a week. Supervising groups of fifteen to thirty, foremen routinely beat children with wooden switches whenever they perceived a child to be slowing down or overlooking leaves. (HRW, World Report 2001)

* Children may have been exposed to toxic organophosphate and carbonate pesticides. Such exposure can lead to pesticide poisoning that is both acute-with effects such as dizziness, vomiting, or diarrhea-and chronic, including disruption of the nervous, endocrine, or reproductive systems. In the villages Human Rights Watch visited, children either resumed work immediately after the fields were sprayed or following a twenty-four to forty-eight hour hiatus, which may still have been inadequate given the heightened susceptibility of children to pesticide intoxication. (HRW, World Report 2001)

*Cotton leaf plantations - In Egypt, an estimated 1.2 million children took part in controlling cotton leaf worm infestations during the summer months, by manually removing damaged portions of leaves. (HRW, World Report 2001)

* Electrical Workshops - In September Ministry of Interior officials raided 16 electrical workshops in various Cairo neighborhoods and found 30 children between the ages of 6 and 12 working there. In another case, authorities found 4 children working in a Cairo restaurant that serves alcoholic beverages. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001)

* Leather Tanning - Children constitute about 25% of the labour force in the leather tanneries of old Cairo. (US Dept of Labor, Sweat and Toil of Children: Efforts to Eliminate Child Labour, 1998)

* Leather Tanning - An ILO study notes that the average age of children working in leather tanning industry was 11.7 years old, and worked 12.8 hours per day. (US Dept of Labor, Sweat and Toil of Children, 1994, citing Ahmed Abdalla, "Child labour in Egypt: Leather tanning in Cairo", in ILO, Combating Child Labour, 1988)

* Street Children - A 1997 study by the NGO network estimated that 1,000 children up to the age of 16 years were living on their own in the streets, 42 % of whom were under the age of 5. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)

El Salvador

GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS

* Child labour is common in the coffee sector, the sugar industry and in the cottage production of fireworks. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)

SPECIFIC SECTORS

* Garment Manufacturing - More than 100 child workers were noted in Mandarin International garment manufacturing plant, producing garments for GAP. (US Dept of Labor, Industry and Codes of Conduct, 1996)

* Street Vending - Most of the working children are street vendors. (EI, EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector, 1998)

Equatorial Guinea

SPECIFIC SECTORS

* Street Vending - Underage youth are engaged in street vending. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)

Eritrea

SPECIFIC SECTORS

* Street Vending - In urban areas, some children are street vendors of cigarettes, newspapers, or chewing gum. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)

Estonia

GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS

* The Church leaders were illegally bringing young people from Estonia to US to use them as domestic workers, paying them less than a minimum wage. ("Missionary group members could stand trial for smuggling children", 9 June 2000, reprinted in Stop Trafficking Archive, July 2000)

* There were instances of families forcing their children to engage in begging and peddling. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)

SPECIFIC SECTORS

* Commercial Fishing - A June report described child labour practice as rampant in 156 fishing villages along the Afar River and settlements along the Volta Lake in the Afram plains. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)

Ethiopia

GENERAL NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS

* A research study of child labour sponsored by CETU's National Federation of Farm, Plantation, Fishery, and Agro-industry Trade Unions and published in 1999 focused on rural locations. The study reported that 30% of the workers on state farms surveyed were between the ages of 7 and 14. Child workers, who worked alongside parents hired by the state, typically worked 6 days a week, received no benefits, and earned less than $10 (80 birr) a month. At one plantation, 75% of the children worked 12-hour days. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2000, February 2001 citing CETU's National Federation of Farm, Plantation, Fishery, and Agro-industry Trade Unions)

* In urban areas, children in large numbers can be seen working in a variety of jobs, including shining shoes, hustling passengers into cabs, working as porters, selling lottery tickets, and herding animals. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)

SPECIFIC SECTORS

* Street Vending - Large numbers of children of all ages work as street peddlers in the cities. (EI, EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector, 1998)

* Street Children - UNICEF estimates that there are approximately 150,000 street children in the urban areas, of which 100,000 reside in Addis Ababa. These children beg, sometimes as part of a gang, or work in the informal sector in order to survive. (US Dept of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 1999, 25 February 2000)

* Street Children - Many thousands of street children live in Addis Ababa. (EI, EI Barometer on Human and Trade Union Rights in the Education Sector, 1998)

Fiji

SPECIFIC SECTORS

* Garment Manufacturing - The garment industry in Fiji is suspected to employ about 1,500 children. However, Fiji's Textile, Clothing and Footwear Council denied the allegation. ("Fiji Garment Council Denies Child Labour Claims", PACNEWS, 6 January 1999, reprinted in Pacific Islands Report)

* Street Children - In November 1999, 73 street kids were found in Suva, Fiji.There is a growing number of women and children on the street. ("Concern Over Children and Women and the Streets of Fiji", The Fiji Times/PINA Nius Online, 10 March 2000, reprinted in Pacific Islands Report)

Finland

GEN