Capitals – Child labour in the Arab world is growing at an alarming rate. This could be explained by rising unemployment among the adult working population, and the increasing levels of poverty in many Arab countries.
From shoeshine boys on the streets of Sanaa to underage labourers on Egyptian farms, Studies issued by some Arab countries warns of significant levels of child labour and a lack of effective monitoring to tackle abuses.
The term “child labour” is often defined as work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development. In its most extreme forms, child labour involves children being enslaved, separated from their families, exposed to serious hazards and illnesses and/or left to fend for themselves on the streets of large cities – often at a very early age.
This year, the focus for World Day Against Child Labour – marked on 12 June – is on child labour and supply chains. According to ILO there are 246 million children in the world between 5 and 17 who work, and 180 million of them are exposed to dangerous forms of labour. Around 73 million working children are below 10. This means one in six children are workers.
In the Arab world, the issue of child labour, at around 12 million, is becoming a disturbing trend, say Arab League officials, Child labour monitors warn that patchy data leave Arab policymakers struggling against a problem that sees young people exposed to toxic agricultural chemicals on farms and life-threatening machinery in factories and workshops.
Although 168 countries around the world have ratified Convention 138 of 1973 on the minimum age for employment, and 180 countries ratified on Convention No. 182 of 1999 on the prohibition of the worst forms of child labor most of the reports and studies issued by many Arab capitals confirms the expansion of child labor for many reasons such as poverty and wars and crises in many Arab states.
Child labour exists across the region, predominantly in Morocco, Yemen, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. These countries have and continue to experience economic difficulties and despite laws against child labour the phenomenon continues to increase.
In Morocco, labour laws prohibit the employment of children under 10, but it is argued much work, especially in rug-making, textile and leather goods industries. In Tunisia, the law prohibits children from working in heavy industry before 16, while the minimum age for light industry, including agriculture, is 13. In Egypt, the minimum age is 14, but it can go down to 12 for seasonal work in agriculture.
All this means the incidence of child labour may be much higher than in official figures because of legal factors on the one hand and economic and social factors on the other that push children to work.
In Egypt, for example, there are 2 million children between 6 and 15 who are employed, according to the Ministry of Health. This is an increase on a 1988 government survey of 1.4 million working children between 6 and 14. This suggests worsening family factors demand children work as one study showed working children contribute up to 29 per cent of the family budget.
A further 1989 study showed 720,000 children work on farms and in repair and craft shops, in heavy industries such as brick-making and textiles and in leather and carpet-making factories.
This is also the case with other countries such as Yemen, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, Palestine and Iraq where child labour not only persists but is increasing, a fact attributed directly to the worsening economic situations in these countries.
This can clearly be demonstrated by looking at Lebanon. In the early 1970s, when there was economic prosperity, there was hardly any child labour, a situation that was reversed after 1975.
According to the Survey of Population and Housing of 1996, child labourers, especially between 10 and 18, are estimated at 43,415. The same was the case in Syria where the ILO projected an increase as well. In 2000, 53,000 children between 10 and 14 were in the labour market.
In Algeria the Ministry of National Solidarity, Family Affairs and the Status of Women confirmed that the rate of child labor in Algeria is very low, and that the outcome of recent years has shown that this ratio does not exceed 0.5 percent, according to the results of investigations carried out by the labor inspectorate, no case involving the existence of the worst forms of child labor in Algeria have been registered.
As for Palestine the figures of the Palestinian Ministry of Labor in 2014, indicate that there are 100 thousand children under the age of 18 years working in various work sites, according to Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, children aged 10-17 years accounted for 19.7% of the total population.
The 2012 Labour Force Survey data indicated that 28.5% of children are not enrolled in school because they work and live in extreme poverty.
Because of internal and external factors, Yemen did not fare too well either, as child labour throughout the 1990s increased, when there was a return of migrant workers from the Gulf.
In Taez city, 21.1 per cent of the 3.5 million labour force in Yemen are children under 15. This is an increase on the 1991 census of 104,786 which more than doubled to 231,255 in the 1994 census.
In 1997, around 400,000 children were working on the streets in different cities in Yemen, selling vegetables and clothes, working the fields and as car mechanics or in restaurants.
The release of Jordans first child labour study this year was considered a regional breakthrough. The report revealed a very low incidence rate of child labour in Jordan – affecting 36 thousand and 40 thousand children over the past two years.
Governmental institutions gave children in Jordan a lot of attention and facilitated their education and legal protection, health, cultural and welfare, but child labor is still a problem and must be solved by knowing the number of working children and their workplaces to tackle the problem.
The study, prepared by the Economic and Social Council, estimated the number of child workers in Jordan based on the growth of the number of students and the number of dropouts, indicating that most working children had dropped out after completing the intermediate stage (the first nine years of education). Where 1.3% of the working children do not complete primary school and 34.4% have completed primary school and only about 60 percent of working children have completed the intermediate stage.
The study confirms, that the main motive of child labor and is economic problems of poor families, the educational system is a major cause that pushes children to leave school and join the labor market. It must not be understood in this context that the educational system need to make some changes that will help children get a better education. Officials hope to declare Jordan child labour a thing of the past within the next five years.
The number of working children is likely to continue rising in the Arab world until effective economic programs are drawn up to ensure they dont need to go out to work anymore.
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