Majority of working children in Asia: ILO

Majority of working children in Asia: ILO

Agencies United Nations/Bangkok

Around 700,000 Indonesian child workers, and over 127 million child workers in Asia, toil under frequently appalling conditions, and face sexual abuse and even slavery, international labor and children's organizations said on Friday.

While the number of domestic child workers worldwide is not known, some 5 million are employed in South Asia, 559,000 in Brazil, 250,000 in Haiti, 200,000 in Kenya and 700,000 in Indonesia, the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) says.

"More than half of all child laborers -- 127 million children -- are under the age of 14 and live here in the Asia-Pacific region," the International Labor Organization (ILO) said in a statement to mark World Day Against Child Labor on Saturday.

Child labor protection efforts often overlook the millions of children employed around the world as domestic servants, Unicef said on Friday, urging governments to take steps to ensure their rights to an education and healthy development were upheld.

The ILO released a report focusing on the plight of children employed as domestic helpers, who are often heavily exploited.

"Away from their families, often laboring long hours, with little or no pay, these children are routinely denied their right to attend school and are vulnerable to physical, emotional, psychological and sexual abuse at the hands of their employers," the ILO said.

ILO senior specialist on child labor Panudda Boonpala called the findings "depressing".

The state of affairs in which millions of youths are trafficked often across borders would only get worse if urgent steps are not taken, she told AFP.

"In most countries this remains a problem," said Boonpala, who is co-editor of the report.

"They go through all kinds of exploitation, in terms of working hours, little or no pay, no support services, and no access to education. The problem is very serious, and international governments need to take more concerted action."

Boonpala said the ILO found no cases of child domestic workers being paid at or above the country's minimum wage.

"Sometimes it's no wage at all, or merely work in exchange for boarding," she said.

The ILO report did not point to any specific country in Asia as being most in breach of child labor conventions.

In 1999, several ILO member states including China, Indonesia, Iran, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam approved Convention 182 on the worst forms of child labor.

It committed signatories to act immediately to eliminate such forms of child labor, including forced work or slavery, prostitution, pornography and labor under "hazardous" conditions.