Conflict and mass displacement increase child labor

A new multi-organizational report finds that conflict and war over the past decade has coincided with an increase in child labor among refugee children, the internally displaced and other populations across the region.

Commissioned by the League of Arab States (LAS) and the Arab Council for Childhood Development (ACCD), the “Child Labour in the Arab Region: A Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis ” report is the first to provide an overview of the profile and trends of child labor in the League’s 22 member states.

“Over the past ten years, during which the region has witnessed high levels of armed conflict resulting in the mass displacement of populations – both within and between countries – the situation has certainly worsened,” the report states. 

A dearth of systematically and comprehensively-collected regional data from previous years means that exact figures on the recent rise of child labor among different population groups are difficult to assess, explained Frank Hagemann, Deputy Regional Director for the Arab States from the International Labour Organization (ILO). The ILO is the lead UN agency that oversaw the production of the study, in partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

“Yet the report makes clear that the effects of recent economic shocks, political turmoil, conflict and war have worsened pre-existing levels of child labor, and have also reversed much of the progress Arab countries made in combatting child labor through policy development and practical measures,” Hagemann said. “As is the case across the globe, the conflict has hit women and children disproportionately hard in the region. In consequence, child labor has emerged as perhaps the most critical child-protection issue in the region, requiring our urgent attention and action,” Hagemann said.

Worst forms of child labor

The study reports that children in parts of the Arab region “have been increasingly drawn into the worst forms of child labor and face serious and worrying exploitation, abuse and violation of their rights.”

The case of hazardous work in agriculture

“The worst forms of child labor include the kinds of hazardous work found in the agriculture sector, in which most children in the Arab region work in both paid and unpaid labor,” said Abdessalam Ould Ahmed, FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for the Near East and North Africa. “Such labor takes place mostly in rural areas, and represents a cheap workforce for small-scale farming – mostly non-mechanized labor-intensive methods of production involving high risks.”

Agriculture accounts for more than half of children in employment in countries such as Yemen, Sudan and Egypt.

Mass displacement and armed conflict

The worst forms of child labor are also found in services and industry and include the multiple dangers associated with working on the streets.

They also include direct and indirect involvement in armed conflict and in situations associated with armed conflict.

The study reports that over half of Arab countries are currently affected by conflicts or inflows of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs). These include Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza Strip, and Yemen.

Read and download the “Child Labour in the Arab Region: A Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis report.

Original source: ILO
Published on 20 March 2019