At least one million children are involved in hazardous work in Mozambique

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At least one million children are involved in hazardous work in Mozambique

8:05 CAT | 24 Mar 2017

O País

About 1.4 million children are involved in child labour in Mozambique, 96 percent in family and commercial agriculture, hunting, fishing, forestry and trade. About 15 percent of those have at some time been injured, O País reports.

To combat the situation, Mozambique’s Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security is to draw up a list of the most objectionable forms of child labour to serve as a guide for an action plan.

Minister of Labour, Employment and Social Security, Vitória Diogo said: “The list will be drawn up by the Labour Inspectorate, in cooperation with the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) and the International Labour Organization (ILO). Our highest priority, however, is to sensitize society, parents and caregivers, so as to avoid children doing dangerous jobs.”

Once the list and action plan are drawn up, the subsequent phase will consist of monitoring.

“The government has taken this decision after a recommendation made by a study carried out last year by the Eduardo Mondlane University on child labour in the country.

“The study points to prostitution and mining as the worst forms of child labour, affecting thousands of children in Mozambique, and cites economic, socio-cultural and natural phenomena, particularly drought and floods, as some of the causes leading to children being engaged in these activities,” she said.

While the list is not yet complete, the minister provisionally advanced some dangerous forms of work. “Children should not perform tasks like artisanal mining and handling pesticides,” she warned

The finished list will be presented later this year.

The United Nations Children’s Fund says that the use of child labour in Mozambique is “serious and alarming”, and that the government’s decision to draw up the list of the worst forms of child labour is correct.

“This is a worldwide problem. It does not affect this country only. The government’s decision to cooperate with other organizations is laudable,” Unicef representative in Mozambique, Marcoluigi Corsi said. According to Unicef, 15 percent of working Mozambican children have contracted injuries in the workplace, mostly in agriculture. Unicef urges the strengthening of labour inspection to stop the practice.

Source: O País