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Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
For more information call: 202/219- 8211.
Despite laws in every country of the world regulating
child labor, millions of children work illegally in dangerous conditions,
either kidnapped, recruited or sold by their parents into forced or bonded
labor.
This is disclosed in a report, "By the Sweat and Toil of
Children: The Use of Child Labor in U.S. Agricultural Imports and Forced and
Bonded Child Labor." The report was released today by Labor Secretary Robert B.
Reich and Iowa Senator Tom Harkin during a Washington, D.C. news
conference.
"This report is not about children working after school,
maybe in the family business," said Reich. "It is about children forced to work
beyond their physical capacity in dangerous working conditions, often earning
only a fraction of an adult's pay -- if they earn anything at all. Far from
learning legitimate trades or skills, these children are denied even a basic
education."
The report, mandated by Congress and prepared by the U.S.
Labor Department's Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB), shows that
child slaves are a largely invisible workforce, rarely recognized by society or
government. Because their employment is illegal, it is seldom reported by
employers and goes unrecorded in surveys.
The report says children weave carpets, mine gold and help
with fishing operations. They are forced to work as domestic servants and
prostitutes. They help harvest cocoa, coffee, coconuts, cotton, fruit and
vegetables, palm oil, rubber, sisal, sugar cane, tea and tobacco. Often they
labor under harsh and dangerous conditions, putting in extremely long hours and
earning only a fraction of what adults are paid. Forced and bonded children
receive little or no pay and are subjected to severe abuse.
The report follows one issued by the department in 1994,
"By the Sweat and Toil of Children: The Use of Child Labor in U.S. Manufactured
and Mined Imports." That report detailed illegal child labor in the export
sector of 19 countries. Garment, carpet and shoe industries were identified as
using illegal child labor, as were small-scale mining, gem polishing, food
processing, leather tanning and furniture manufacturing.
Earlier this year the department signed an agreement with
the International Labor Organization (ILO) to contribute funds to ILO's
international program on the elimination of child labor. The funds will support
programs aimed at eliminating child labor in Bangladesh, Thailand, the
Philippines, Africa and Brazil.
Copies of both the 1994 report (Volume I) and the report
issued today (Volume II) are available from the department's international
child labor study group at (292) 208-4843; fax (202) 219-4923.
Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
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