It may sound like old news to some, but one of the scary realities of our world is that some of the biggest problems facing humanity occur without explosions, protests, or big news headlines. Often, those who suffer the most suffer in silence, far away from the eyes of news cameras and the international community.
Child Labour is one of those problems that passes largely unnoticed. All over the world, across cultural, social, and religious divides, child labour persists. Sometimes it occurs as the simple act of a well-intended parent taking their child to work in the farm fields by their side. Other times, it is malicious factory owners using children as cheap labour in their factory, where they are abused and underpaid.
What makes the issue more complicated is that child labour can occur in front of our eyes, without us noticing. Sometimes understanding child labour is understanding what is not visible to us. It is understanding that a working child is not attending school, that a working child is malnourished, and that a working child is physically and psychologically abused. The difference between a child helping their mother in the family shop and child exploitation could be the simple question of whether or not the child’s work is preventing them from attending school. The line can sometimes be fine and other times glaring.
At Transterra Media, our contributors have documented child labour around the world for years, from the brick factories of Bangladesh, to the garbage piles of Cambodia, and the car repair shops of Syria. Our contributors have shed a small amount of light on a massive issue that the world is still trying to address.
Child begging at the Thai-Burmese border city or Mae Sai.
Beggar children taking a break at the Thai-Burmese border of Mae Sai.
Boys begging through the chain-linked fence separating Burma from Thailand in the thai border city of Mae Sai.
Burmese children begging at the Thai-Burmese border city of Mae Sai.
Cameroon lies on the "gold belt" of West Africa, stretching from Mali through Ghana far into the continent. The eastern part bordering with the political instable Central African Republic is considered one of the most promising regions regarding gold and diamond resources. The business remains a poorly regulated one with hardly any official figures available on extraction or trade. Modern mining methods are under-utilised and foreign investors still to be drawn to the country. In more recent years international companies - mainly from France, China and Canada have shown increasing interest. With poor regulation of the sector and government prone for corruption this development is welcomed with careful scepticism. Illegal mining, land grabbing, and unlawfully accessed licences contribute to a bad image.
Much of the gold extraction is conducted in artisanal mines. Families and villages jointly work together. Child labor is common, and numerous organizations have reported cases of parents taking their children out of school in order to support the family.
Many of the informal mines are run by middle-men buying off the minerals (gold and diamonds) at low prices. But money issues are pressing and leave little room and/ or power for negotiation. A gram of 18 karat gold - the result of often multiple days of work goes for as little 10.000 XAF (about 15 Euros)
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Around 400 people, about the half of them children, are forced to work illegally on one of the biggest garbage dumps of Delhi, India earning just a few cents everyday for sorting the garbage of one of the biggest cities in India.
Around 400 people, about the half of them children, are forced to work illegally on one of the biggest garbage dumps of Delhi, India earning just a few cents everyday for sorting the garbage of one of the biggest cities in India.
Around 400 people, about the half of them children, are forced to work illegally on one of the biggest garbage dumps of Delhi, India earning just a few cents everyday for sorting the garbage of one of the biggest cities in India.
Around 400 people, about the half of them children, are forced to work illegally on one of the biggest garbage dumps of Delhi, India earning just a few cents everyday for sorting the garbage of one of the biggest cities in India.
Around 400 people, about the half of them children, are forced to work illegally on one of the biggest garbage dumps of Delhi, India earning just a few cents everyday for sorting the garbage of one of the biggest cities in India.
Around 400 people, about the half of them children, are forced to work illegally on one of the biggest garbage dumps of Delhi, India earning just a few cents everyday for sorting the garbage of one of the biggest cities in India.
Around 400 people, about the half of them children, are forced to work illegally on one of the biggest garbage dumps of Delhi, India earning just a few cents everyday for sorting the garbage of one of the biggest cities in India.
Around 400 people, about the half of them children, are forced to work illegally on one of the biggest garbage dumps of Delhi, India earning just a few cents everyday for sorting the garbage of one of the biggest cities in India.
Around 400 people, about the half of them children, are forced to work illegally on one of the biggest garbage dumps of Delhi, India earning just a few cents everyday for sorting the garbage of one of the biggest cities in India.
Around 400 people, about the half of them children, are forced to work illegally on one of the biggest garbage dumps of Delhi, India earning just a few cents everyday for sorting the garbage of one of the biggest cities in India.
Around 400 people, about the half of them children, are forced to work illegally on one of the biggest garbage dumps of Delhi, India earning just a few cents everyday for sorting the garbage of one of the biggest cities in India.
Around 400 people, about the half of them children, are forced to work illegally on one of the biggest garbage dumps of Delhi, India earning just a few cents everyday for sorting the garbage of one of the biggest cities in India.
Around 400 people, about the half of them children, are forced to work illegally on one of the biggest garbage dumps of Delhi, India earning just a few cents everyday for sorting the garbage of one of the biggest cities in India.
Around 400 people, about the half of them children, are forced to work illegally on one of the biggest garbage dumps of Delhi, India earning just a few cents everyday for sorting the garbage of one of the biggest cities in India.
Around 400 people, about the half of them children, are forced to work illegally on one of the biggest garbage dumps of Delhi, India earning just a few cents everyday for sorting the garbage of one of the biggest cities in India.
Around 400 people, about the half of them children, are forced to work illegally on one of the biggest garbage dumps of Delhi, India earning just a few cents everyday for sorting the garbage of one of the biggest cities in India.
Around 400 people, about the half of them children, are forced to work illegally on one of the biggest garbage dumps of Delhi, India earning just a few cents everyday for sorting the garbage of one of the biggest cities in India.
Around 400 people, about the half of them children, are forced to work illegally on one of the biggest garbage dumps of Delhi, India earning just a few cents everyday for sorting the garbage of one of the biggest cities in India.
Around 400 people, about the half of them children, are forced to work illegally on one of the biggest garbage dumps of Delhi, India earning just a few cents everyday for sorting the garbage of one of the biggest cities in India.
Around 400 people, about the half of them children, are forced to work illegally on one of the biggest garbage dumps of Delhi, India earning just a few cents everyday for sorting the garbage of one of the biggest cities in India.
Around 400 people, about the half of them children, are forced to work illegally on one of the biggest garbage dumps of Delhi, India earning just a few cents everyday for sorting the garbage of one of the biggest cities in India.
Around 400 people, about the half of them children, are forced to work illegally on one of the biggest garbage dumps of Delhi, India earning just a few cents everyday for sorting the garbage of one of the biggest cities in India.
Around 400 people, about the half of them children, are forced to work illegally on one of the biggest garbage dumps of Delhi, India earning just a few cents everyday for sorting the garbage of one of the biggest cities in India.
Around 400 people, about the half of them children, are forced to work illegally on one of the biggest garbage dumps of Delhi, India earning just a few cents everyday for sorting the garbage of one of the biggest cities in India.
Around 400 people, about the half of them children, are forced to work illegally on one of the biggest garbage dumps of Delhi, India earning just a few cents everyday for sorting the garbage of one of the biggest cities in India.
Two children are carrying grass to sell in a local market.
An estimated 214 million persons worldwide are international migrants, along with an estimated 740 million internal migrants. Youth make up a disproportionate share of migrants from developing countries; about one third is between 12 and 25 years old. This includes millions of children under the age of 18. Migrant Children travelling with or with out their family in the South-East Asian region are most vulnerable group risking of child labor and human trafficking. Children attached to migrant worker parents can be found actively working in sectors such as domestic labor, street vending, farming, construction, waste collecting in garbage dumps and begging, often without accompanying adults or family and without safety or protection. Other common forms of child labor found in migrant communities including seafood processing, where children are often found working along side their parents in seafood markets or ship docks where seafood are unloaded, processing plants, and frozen processed food factories.
Girl living in a slum in Paoy Paet, Cambodia, near the Thai border. During the evenings, many children enter the no man's land in between the two checkpoints and beg the passers by.
Young teen working on a construction site in one of Paoy Paet's many slums.
Boy living in a slum in Paoy Paet, Cambodia, near the Thai border. During the evenings, many children enter the no man's land in between the two checkpoints and beg the passers by.
Cambodian children begging in the no man's land between the Thai and Cambodian checkpoints of the Paoy Paet border.
Child labor in Bangladesh is common, with 4.7 million or 12.6% of children aged below 14 in the work force. Out of the child laborers engaged in the work force, 83% are employed in rural areas and 17% are employed in urban areas. Employment ranges from brick fields, garbage collecting, street hawker, different factories etc. In 2006, Bangladesh passed a Labor Law setting the minimum legal age for employment as 14. Nevertheless, the enforcement of such labor laws is virtually impossible in Bangladesh because 93% of child laborers are employed at this moment. The main reason is poverty. Due to poverty most of the parents can’t afford to send their children to school. Resulting, children are adopting child labor to contribute to their family and for their future as well.
A boy is working in a brick field.