Child Labor in Latin America
Child labor in Latin America is a big problem. There are an estimated 250 million child workers between the ages of 5 and 14 years old. Eighteen million of those child laborers are between the ages of 10 and 14. Out of all of the children in Latin America, an estimated 26% are forced to work. Children there often work long hours. Many work in agriculture. They often harvest and cultivate coffee. Some harvest bananas, sugar cane, sisal, tobacco, oranges, and other fruits and vegetables. Child labor is problem that continues to grow.
In Colombia, an estimated 2.5 million children are forced to work to support their families. Only 60% of all the children in Colombia leave school with a primary school diploma. On average, child laborers work six to seven hours a day. Each day, they work about nine hours. Their wages are pitifully low and most of them receive no health or unemployment benefits.
Five thousand children between the ages of 6 and 14 were found in secret and illegal workshops in the capital region of Guatemala. They were making fireworks and other explosives. Their work was exposing them to toxic, flammable, and explosive materials. The workshop was also lacking hygiene and safety measures. Nine children have died from being injured while working in the industry. Four children survived their injuries. It is suspected that there are hundreds of sweatshops in the capital region of Guatemala.
http://library.thinkquest.org/03oct/01908/800/latinamerica.htm~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Cut flowers are Colombia's new miracle export, hailed as an alternative to cocaine. Fifty percent of the flowers sold in the U.S. were grown in the Savanna region near Bogotá, Colombia. Colombia mainly exports roses, carnations and lilies, but there are many other flowers grown on their plantations. The children that work on these plantations start at dawn and continuously work until 10:00 pm. in order to reach shipping quotas. Leading up to Valentine’s Day, when the sale of roses is at its height in the United States, laborers in Ecuador begin working at 7:00 am and may not leave until 3:00 am the next day, putting in a twenty hour day only to be fired once the holiday passes and the demand from the US decreases to a more normal level.
A recent study revealed that many children assume positions in this industry because of their parents. In Columbia, child laborers tasks include digging flower beds, weeding, pruning, and cutting stems. The children work in the cultivation areas, cold rooms, and the packaging areas. Children also plant, place guiding wires, cut and rubber band stems, classify and package the flowers, and load the trucks. With advancements in technology, computers are used to monitor each worker's production rate. Because many of the Columbian laws are not heavily enforced, children don’t receive the minimum wage of 118,000 pesos a month, they only earn 66,000 pesos. The actual number of children workers in these countries is uncertain because the industries do not usually admit to using child labor. Generally, the children work around forty-five hours a week.
Luis, a child working in Columbia, says that the farms like to employ children because they have small hands and can work fast. Though he is exposed to pesticides, some of which are banned in the United States and Europe, and becomes sick from them, he continues to endure the plantation labor because his family needs the money. These toxins can cause miscarriages, mutations of the fetus, disruption of the central nervous system leading to paralysis or epilepsy, and cancer. Other reactions to the pesticides include vomiting, dizziness, and loss of vision. Many women, who are now sick from working on these plantations and no longer able to work, watch their children continue to work in the flower trade and are powerless to stop it. Most patients in Columbian hospitals work in the flower industry. Two-thirds of Colombian and Ecuadorian flower workers reportedly suffer from work-related health problems, including headaches, nausea, impaired vision, conjunctivitis, rashes, asthma, stillbirths, miscarriages, congenital malformations and respiratory and neurological problems. When the children become sick they don’t receive sick pay or medical care because most are employed on temporary contracts, which do not include benefits. In addition, run-off from the farms contaminates the water supply with pesticides.
Because of the economy and weak laws in these countries, children are unable to overcome the conditions that bound them to their fate. Many children were living the streets until they were hired into this industry. They are so thrilled to be working that they are unable to see the effects of the pesticides until many years later when the damage has already been done. “It’s a time bomb,” says Dr. Gabriel Rueda, who is working with Cactus, an independent social-welfare group in Bogota. When they are eight or nine, we see children mixing pesticides in the tanks without gloves, masks, or any protection. We may not see the effects until five to twenty years later when they can no longer move their hands. Many farms use very dangerous organ chlorides, which are prohibited in many countries. Mercedes Sosa, a fifteen year old Columbian laborer, says: "In your country, flowers are a symbol of love. Here they are a symbol of suffering."
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http://ihscslnews.org/view_article.php?id=179~~~~~~~~~~~~~~U.S. Dept of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs
INCIDENCE AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Children are involved in commercial sexual exploitation in Colombia. Commercial sexual exploitation of children is found especially in urban centers and in areas where there are large numbers of men who are separated from families due to work. Children are involved in commercial sexual exploitation either on the streets or in private establishments such as bars, brothels, or massage parlors, and tend to range in age from 13 to 17 years. Colombia is a source and transit country for girls trafficked for sexual exploitation.
Bur of Democracy, Human Rights & Labor - Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005
SECTION 6 WORKER RIGHTS –
Although there were no reports of forced child labor in the formal economy, several thousand children were forced to serve as paramilitary or guerrilla combatants, prostitutes, or coca pickers.
Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) - 2000
<67> While noting with appreciation the revisions to the State party's Penal Code and the establishment of a national plan of action to combat and prevent the sexual exploitation of children, the Committee remains concerned at the insufficient awareness among the population of these issues.
ECPAT: Fifth Report on implementation of the Agenda for Action
COUNTRY UPDATES – COLOMBIA – The National Plan of Action against the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in Colombia (Plan de Acción en favor de los Derechos de la Infancia Explotada Sexualmente y contra la Explotación Sexual Infantil) is not being implemented. According to the ICBF, which had main responsibility for the plan, it has been developed in an isolated manner and according to the competencies of each institution involved. As a consequence, the ICBF says it has not been possible to measure its impact. The Inter-institutional Committee to fight the trafficking of women, girls and boys is putting into practice a plan for the prevention and protection of victims and to stop the trafficking of persons.
Combating Child Prostitution in Colombia
Many parents send their children out into the streets to help support the family by stealing, selling chewing gum and cigarettes, or worse, selling themselves. It is estimated that there are 35,000 children working as prostitutes in Colombia with between 5,000 and 10,000 of them on the streets of Bogotá.
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http://www.gvnet.com/childprostitution/Colombia.htm
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Far, far more available on Colombia's child slave labor. I have posted articles here on the children working in Lima, every day, looking for recycling materials in the trash dumps.
Of course they are only two of many. They are two which enjoy Bush's approval.