[child-rights] More than eight million children are forced into slavery

12 June 2002

On 12 June the world commemorates International Child Labour Day, a
day that draws attention to abusive child labour around the world.

More than eight million children are in slavery around the world, a
recent International Labour Organization report says. They are
trafficked, forced into prostitution and pornography, forced to work
as bonded labour and other forms of forced labour and forcibly
recruited into armed service.

In West Africa, girls as young as six years old are lured from their
homes and tricked into working as domestics, children are forced into
bonded labour in South Asia, young boys are trafficked to Gulf States
to work as camel jockeys.

"Governments must protect children and ensure laws prohibiting
slavery are implemented. Their rights to education, safety, rest and
recreation must be protected and considered a priority," Mary Cunneen
Director of Anti-Slavery says.

In one recently reported case, a 10-year-old boy, Ali Islam, was
returned to his parents in Bangladesh after four years in Dubai,
United Arab Emirates, where he was forced to work as a camel jockey.

In 1998 when he was six, Ali was abducted while playing with his
friends. He was sold to a man who took him to Nepal via India and was
then trafficked to the UAE where he was sold again.

Despite its being illegal in the UAE to employ a child under 15 and
to expose a child to dangerous work, using children as camel jockeys
continues despite years of pressure for it to stop.


Press Release
Anti-Slavery International