At least one million children in Africa, Latin America, Europe and Asia, including the Philippines, work in small-scale mining and quarrying operations, the International Labor Organization (ILO) reported.
In the Philippines alone, more than 18,000 children, aged 10 to 14, work in this hazardous environment, data from the National Statistics Office showed. Child labor in the country is common due to widespread poverty, obligating children to help support to their families to meet daily needs.
The ILO expressed alarm that child laborers’ continued exposure to dust and mercury-based chemicals in mines can cause serious brain damage. Child laborers in the mining industry also often are undersized as a result of carrying excessively heavy loads.
The ILO believes that child laborers in mining sites are likely to increase due to the higher prices and demand for minerals from countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and emerging economies.
In her latest report to the Human Rights Council, the Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, Gulnara Shahinian, said the work carried out by children as young as three years old in mines and quarries qualifies as modern day slavery, due to the combined elements of coercion, fear, restriction on freedom of movement and complete dependence on the employer.
“The mines and quarries in which children work are often informal and situated in remote areas of a country,” Shahinian said.
Shahinian’s report highlights that the medium and long term effects of this type of work on health are far more severe on children than on adults.
“Children suffer respiratory illnesses because they inhale rock dust; they are exposed to toxic metals and hazardous chemicals which impact on their nervous systems, cause physical disabilities and even death; children also run the risk of spinal injuries and physical deformities due to the heavy loads they carry,” the report said.
According to Shahinian, poverty is one of the main reasons why children work in the sector and one of the obstacles to eradicating slavery.
She stressed that it is the responsibility of governments to provide alternative livelihoods to families through which they could supplement their income.
“With the lack of investment in rural livelihoods and alternatives to subsistence farming, mining — particularly gold mining — is regarded as a quick way of making money,” she noted.
Artisanal miners, Shahinian said, make one-three times more money from mining than from farming.
“Although better paid than other occupations, it needs to be highlighted that in most of the cases, owing to factors such as debt bondage, inflated prices for basic goods and lack of basic services, wages hardly cover subsistence costs, perpetuating the need for children to work.”
Shahinian urged governments to work with international organizations and civil society to monitor the mining and quarrying sector and ensure that no child is allowed to work in these sites. –Michaela P. del Callar, Daily Tribune
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