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.