Child labor in Saudi Arabia

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Child Labor in Saudi Arabia is the employing of children for work that deprives children of their childhood, dignity, potential, and that is harmful to a child's physical and mental development.

Contents

Definitions

Child Labor

Child labor, as defined by the International Labour Organization (ILO), is work that deprives children of their childhood, dignity, potential, and that is harmful to a child's physical and mental development. [1] International efforts to abolish child labor were first organized at the International Labour Conference in Berlin in 1890. Child labor is far more prevalent in developing countries, including much of the middle east, where millions of children are working in mines, fields, and service industries. [2] Child labor has existed throughout history and reached its peak in western society during the 19th and 20th centuries following the onset of the industrial revolution. [3] In poor countries, one in four children are working in a form of child labor. Primary causes of child labor are poverty and lack of access to education. Oftentimes, income the child makes from their work is thought of as crucial for their survival and the survival of their family. [4]

Consequences of Child Labor

Consequences of child labor include interfering with a child's schooling by depriving them the ability to attend school as a result of working. A child may be obliged to leave school before completion or demanding the child to attend school along with long and demanding work. [1] According to a study conducted by ILO, sending a child into child labor rather than to school can bring large economic downfalls for developing nations. [5] Employed children are less likely to attend school and results in a less educated, and less economically competitive population in the future. [6]

Current state of child labor in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia Census 2011 shows children and young adults make up half of the 28 million population in Saudi Arabia. [7] Of this population, 15 percent are child laborers. 42 percent of the children spend four to eight hours a day outside the home, 40 percent spend eight to 12 hours, while 10 percent spend more than 12 hours outside the home. [8] The majority of child labor in Saudi Arabia is concentrated in the areas of human trafficking, agriculture, and family businesses. The Government of Yemen has signed trafficking agreements with neighboring countries, provided training to security and border officials on how to recognize and care for trafficked children, raised awareness among parents about the dangers of child trafficking, and established a reception and rehabilitation centre on the border with Saudi Arabia for returned child victim. [9]

According to a 2018 Report on Saudi Arabia human rights conducted by the US Government, the law prohibits inhumane forms of child labor. It states that no person younger than 15 is permitted to work unless that person is the sole source of support for the family. If a child is between the ages of 13 and 15, they are permitted to work as long as it does not interfere with their schoolwork. Children under the age of 18 are not allowed to work shifts longer than 6 hours a day. Additionally, minors are under no circumstances are to be employed in environments deemed hazardous or harmful. There is no minimum age for workers employed in family-owned businesses. These businesses and household jobs include farming, herding, and domestic service. [10]

Industries

Child Trafficking

One of the foremost forms of child labor in Saudi Arabia. Globally in 2006, it was estimated 1.2 million children were subjected to trafficking annually. Children in the Saudi Arabia region are trafficked for multiple reasons, including cheap labor, sex exploitation, and for use in local militias. [11] Trafficking expands to war efforts as well. Human rights monitoring organization SAM reported Saudi Arabia has been enlisting Yemeni children using human trafficking to fight alongside Saudi Arabia against Yemen. [12]

Agriculture

Has the highest percentage of all child labor, 62%. The predominant drivers for child labor in agriculture include lack of access to education and poverty. [13] To be considered child labor, the work done in the agriculture industry must be hazardous or interfere with schooling. Most children are involved in agriculture working in their own family's farm. These households are oftentimes poorer, an indication the children will be involved in a form of child labor. [14]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Child labour</span> Exploitation of children through work

Child labour is the exploitation of children through any form of work that interferes with their ability to attend regular school, or is mentally, physically, socially and morally harmful. Such exploitation is prohibited by legislation worldwide, although these laws do not consider all work by children as child labour; exceptions include work by child artists, family duties, supervised training, and some forms of work undertaken by Amish children, as well as by Indigenous children in the Americas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention</span> International Labour Organization Convention

The Convention Concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour, known in short as the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, was adopted by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in 1999 as ILO Convention No 182. It is one of eight ILO fundamental conventions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trafficking of children</span> Form of human trafficking

Trafficking of children is a form of human trafficking and is defined by the United Nations as the "recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, and/or receipt" kidnapping of a child for the purpose of slavery, forced labour, and exploitation. This definition is substantially wider than the same document's definition of "trafficking in persons". Children may also be trafficked for adoption.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Child labour in cocoa production</span> Controversial use of children in the production of cacao beans

Child labour is a recurring issue in cocoa production. Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana, together produce nearly 60% of the world's cocoa each year. During the 2018/19 cocoa-growing season, research commissioned by the U.S. Department of Labor was conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago in these two countries and found that 1.48 million children are engaged in hazardous work on cocoa farms including working with sharp tools and agricultural chemicals and carrying heavy loads. That number of children is significant, representing 43 percent of all children living in agricultural households in cocoa growing areas. During the same period cocoa production in Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana increased 62 percent while the prevalence of child labour in cocoa production among all agricultural households increased 14 percentage points. Attention on this subject has focused on West Africa, which collectively supplies 69% of the world's cocoa, and Côte d'Ivoire, supplying 35%, in particular.

Child labour in Botswana is defined as the exploitation of children through any form of work which is harmful to their physical, mental, social and moral development. Child labour in Botswana is characterised by the type of forced work at an associated age, as a result of reasons such as poverty and household-resource allocations. Child labour in Botswana is not of higher percentage according to studies. The United States Department of Labor states that due to the gaps in the national frameworks, scarce economy, and lack of initiatives, “children in Botswana engage in the worst forms of child labour”. The International Labour Organization is a body of the United Nations which engages to develop labour policies and promote social justice issues. The International Labour Organization (ILO) in convention 138 states the minimum required age for employment to act as the method for "effective abolition of child labour" through establishing minimum age requirements and policies for countries when ratified. Botswana ratified the Minimum Age Convention in 1995, establishing a national policy allowing children at least fourteen-years old to work in specified conditions. Botswana further ratified the ILO's Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, convention 182, in 2000.

Child labour in Eswatini is a controversial issue that affects a large portion of the country's population. Child labour is often seen as a human rights concern because it is "work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development," as defined by the International Labour Organization (ILO). Additionally, child labour is harmful in that it restricts a child's ability to attend school or receive an education. The ILO recognizes that not all forms of children working are harmful, but this article will focus on the type of child labour that is generally accepted as harmful to the child involved.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Human rights in Yemen</span> Overview of the observance of human rights in Yemen

Human rights in Yemen are seen as problematic. The security forces have been responsible for torture, inhumane treatment and even extrajudicial executions. In recent years there has been some improvement, with the government signing several international human rights treaties, and even appointing a woman, Dr. Wahiba Fara’a, to the role of Minister of the State of Human Rights.

Uganda is a source and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and sexual exploitation. Ugandan children are trafficked within the country, as well as to Canada, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia for forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation. Karamojong women and children are sold in cattle markets or by intermediaries and forced into situations of domestic servitude, sexual exploitation, herding, and begging. Security companies in Kampala recruit Ugandans to serve as security guards in Iraq where, at times, their travel documents and pay have reportedly been withheld as a means to prevent their departure. These cases may constitute trafficking.

It is likely that several thousands of people are trafficked in Yemen every year, often to Saudi Arabia.

Zambia is a source, transit, and destination country for women and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labor and sexual exploitation. Child prostitution exists in Zambia's urban centers, often encouraged or facilitated by relatives or acquaintances of the victim. Many Zambian child laborers, particularly those in the agriculture, domestic service, and fishing sectors, are also victims of human trafficking. Zambian women, lured by false employment or marriage offers, are trafficked to South Africa via Zimbabwe for sexual exploitation, and to Europe via Malawi. Zambia is a transit point for regional trafficking of women and children, particularly from Angola to Namibia for agricultural labor and from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to South Africa. Malawian and Mozambican adults and children are occasionally trafficked to Zambia for forced agricultural labor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Child labour in Bangladesh</span> Overview of child labour in Bangladesh

Child labour in Bangladesh is significant, with 4.7 million children aged 5 to 14 in the work force in 2002-03. Out of the child labourers engaged in the work force, 83% are employed in rural areas and 17% are employed in urban areas. Child labour can be found in agriculture, poultry breeding, fish processing, the garment sector and the leather industry, as well as in shoe production. Children are involved in jute processing, the production of candles, soap and furniture. They work in the salt industry, the production of asbestos, bitumen, tiles and ship breaking.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">World Day Against Child Labour</span> International observance, June 12

The World Day Against Child Labour is an International Labour Organization (ILO)-sanctioned holiday first launched in 2002 aiming to raise awareness and activism to prevent child labour. It was spurred by ratifications of ILO Convention No. 138 on the minimum age for employment and ILO Convention No. 182 on the worst forms of child labour.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Child labour in India</span> Child labour

A significant proportion of children in India are engaged in child labour. In 2011, the national census of India found that the total number of child labourers, aged [5–14], to be at 10.12 million, out of the total of 259.64 million children in that age group. The child labour problem is not unique to India; worldwide, about 217 million children work, many full-time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Child labour in Cambodia</span>

Child labour refers to the full-time employment of children under a minimum legal age. In 2003, an International Labour Organization (ILO) survey reported that one in every ten children in the capital above the age of seven was engaged in child domestic labour. Children who are too young to work in the fields work as scavengers. They spend their days rummaging in dumps looking for items that can be sold for money. Children also often work in the garment and textile industry, in prostitution, and in the military.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Child labour in Nepal</span>

The incidence of child labour in Nepal is relatively high compared with other countries in South Asia. According to the Nepal Labour Force Survey in 2008, 86.2% of the children who were working were also studying, while 13.8% of the working children were not.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Child labour in Africa</span> Overview of child labour in Africa

Child labour in Africa is generally defined based on two factors: type of work and minimum appropriate age of the work. If a child is involved in an activity that is harmful to his/her physical and mental development, he/she is generally considered as a child labourer. That is, any work that is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children, and interferes with their schooling by depriving them of the opportunity to attend school or requiring them to attempt to combine school attendance with excessively long and heavy work. Appropriate minimum age for each work depends on the effects of the work on the physical health and mental development of children. ILO Convention No. 138 suggests the following minimum age for admission to employment under which, if a child works, he/she is considered as a child laborer: 18 years old for hazardous works, and 13–15 years old for light works, although 12–14 years old may be permitted for light works under strict conditions in very poor countries. Another definition proposed by ILO's Statistical Information and Monitoring Program on Child Labor (SIMPOC) defines a child as a child labourer if he/she is involved in an economic activity, and is under 12 years old and works one or more hours per week, or is 14 years old or under and works at least 14 hours per week, or is 14 years old or under and works at least one hour per week in activities that are hazardous, or is 17 or under and works in an "unconditional worst form of child labor".

Child labor in the Philippines is the employment of children in hazardous occupations below the age of fifteen (15), or without the proper conditions and requirements below the age of fifteen (15), where children are compelled to work on a regular basis to earn a living for themselves and their families, and as a result are disadvantaged educationally and socially. So to make it short, it is called child labor when it is forced.

Child labour laws are statutes placing restrictions and regulations on the work of minors.

Child labor in Bolivia is a widespread phenomenon. A 2014 document on the worst forms of child labor released by the U.S. Department of Labor estimated that approximately 20.2% of children between the ages of 7 and 14, or 388,541 children make up the labor force in Bolivia. Indigenous children are more likely to be engaged in labor than children who reside in urban areas. The activities of child laborers are diverse, however the majority of child laborers are involved in agricultural labor, and this activity varies between urban and rural areas. Bolivia has ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990. Bolivia has also ratified the International Labour Organization’s Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (138) and the ILO’s worst forms of child labor convention (182). In July 2014, the Bolivian government passed the new child and adolescent code, which lowered the minimum working age to ten years old given certain working conditions The new code stipulates that children between the ages of ten and twelve can legally work given they are self-employed while children between 12 and 14 may work as contracted laborers as long as their work does not interfere with their education and they work under parental supervision.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Child labor in Brazil</span>

Child labor, the practice of employing children under the legal age set by a government, is considered one of Brazil's most significant social issues. According to data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), more than 2.7 million minors between the ages of 5 and 17 worked in the country in 2015; 79,000 were between the ages of 5 and 9. Under Brazilian law, 16 is the minimum age to enter the labor market and 14 is the minimum age to work as an apprentice.

References

  1. 1 2 "What is child labour (IPEC)". www.ilo.org. Retrieved 2019-11-04.
  2. ↑ "child labor | Definition, History, & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2019-11-04.
  3. ↑ Cunningham and Viazzo (1996). "Child Labour in Historical Perspective: 1800-1985" (PDF). UNICEF.
  4. ↑ "Causes". www.ilo.org. 2011-07-13. Retrieved 2019-11-04.
  5. ↑ "ILO: 'Child labour prevents development'". 2004-02-04. Retrieved 2019-11-04.
  6. ↑ Edmonds, Eric V. (2016). "Economic Growth and Child Labor in Low Income Economies" (PDF). GLM|Lic.
  7. ↑ "Saudi Arabia Population 2019". World Population Review. Retrieved 2019-11-04.
  8. ↑ "Saudis constitute 89% of child workers". Arab News. 2015-10-12. Retrieved 2019-11-04.
  9. ↑ "Child labour in Arab States (IPEC)". www.ilo.org. Retrieved 2019-11-04.
  10. ↑ https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/SAUDI-ARABIA-2018.pdf [ bare URL PDF ]
  11. ↑ "First Arab regional workshop on combating child trafficking". UNICEF. Retrieved 2019-11-04.
  12. ↑ "Report: Saudi Arabia using human trafficking networks to recruit child soldiers". Middle East Monitor. 2019-09-02. Retrieved 2019-11-04.
  13. ↑ "Hazardous Child Labour in Agriculture". ECLT Foundation. Retrieved 2019-11-04.
  14. ↑ https://glm-lic.iza.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/glmlic_sp003.pdf [ bare URL PDF ]
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