ILO: No room for complacency in global fight vs child labor

THE head of the International Labor Organization (ILO) said there is “no room for complacency” in addressing child labor problems as 215 million children worldwide remain trapped in exploitative labor, most of whom children of migrant workers and those in the informal economy.

ILO Director General Juan Somavia made the call at the 10th anniversary of the annual World Day Against Child Labor on Tuesday where he said that of the 215 million children “laboring to survive,” 5 million of them are in forced labor.

“There is no room for complacency when 215 million are still laboring to survive and more than half of these are exposed to the worst forms of child labor, including slavery and involvement in armed conflict,” said Somavia in a statement.

“We cannot allow the eradication of child labor to slip down the development agenda—all countries should be striving to achieve this target, individually and collectively,” he added.

Somavia said there is a widening gap between the governments’ commitment to address child-labor problems against the practical solutions that are actually being taken on the ground.

He said majority of child-labor incidents occur in the informal economy both in rural and agricultural areas. The Philippines is one of the countries with a large number of vulnerable workers, or those in the informal economy placed at 17 million of the total 35 million work force.

The ILO report titled “Tackling Child Labor: From Commitment to Action” indicated that children of migrant workers and indigenous people are among those vulnerable to be trapped in child labor.

The Philippines is the world’s third-largest sending country of migrant workers, next to China and India with more than 9 million of them in close to 180 countries.

“The largest gap between commitment and action is in the informal economy, where the majority of violations of fundamental labor rights occur,” said the ILO report. “Children in rural and agricultural areas, as well as children of migrant workers and indigenous peoples, are most vulnerable to be caught in child labor.”

The ILO noted that there are very few cases of child labor that reach national courts, a situation that allows the problem to prevail.

“Sanctions for violations are often weak to be effective deterrents against the exploitation of children. This means national judicial and law-enforcement institutions along with victim protection programs need to be strengthened,” said the ILO report.

The Labor Force Survey of the Department of Labor and Employment (LFS-DOLE) estimated that there are 4 million Filipino children in child-labor situations, 2.4 million of them are in worst forms of child labor.

Worst forms of child labor or modern day slavery include sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage and serfdom and forced recruitment in armed conflict.

Children in prostitution, pornography and pornographic performances as well as those being used to traffic illegal drugs are also considered under the worst form of child labor under the ILO standards.

In the Philippines a number of child labor cases are in agriculture sector and in the informal economy where children are forced to abandon school to help their parents earn for the family. Also, a huge number of those in the worst form of child labor are those being trafficked for sex slavery in brothels within the country and in the regional neighbors.

The Philippine is among the signatories to ILO’s core conventions on child labor that include Conventions 138 concerning the Minimum Age for Admission to Employment and 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labor. –ESTRELLA TORRES / REPORTER, Businessmirror