|
Poor enforcement of labour laws leaves children
vulnerable to exploitation.
In a crowded market, ten-year-old Mazin expertly
navigates his way through shoppers and vendors. He
wears a second-hand t-shirt and cheap sneakers and
has an ice cream box slung around his neck.
Mazin, who did not give his last name, earns 3,000
to 7,000 dinars (two to three US dollars) per day
doing seasonal work, which in spring means selling
ice cream. He only went to school for two years and
now helps support his family in Hawija.
But Mazin doesn’t miss school. His true love is
soccer, though he only has time to play on Fridays,
which Iraq takes as a weekend holiday. Otherwise he
starts his day in the morning and keeps walking
until sunset. "I'm the best player on the block," he
bragged.
Iraq signed the United Nations' Convention on the
Rights of the Child in 1989. However, provisions on
child labour have almost never been enforced, in
part because the economic sanctions imposed on Iraq
in the 1990s had tough effects on poor and
uneducated families, and parents frequently pulled
their children out of school to work.
The US-led Coalition Provision Authority, which
governed Iraq following the fall of Saddam Hussein's
regime three years ago, made it illegal for Iraqi
children under the age of 15 to work. But child
labour remains common and may be on the rise once
again, because the country's conflict is hindering
economic development, experts say.
The US State Department noted in its 2005 Iraqi
human rights report that children from the estimated
one million Iraqi families living on less than one
dollar a day were "routinely used as an additional
source of labour or income".
"It's natural for us to see a large number of
children under 10 years old doing jobs that they
shouldn't be doing, and the law prohibits it," said
attorney Abdullah Nazal.
Most of the children work as seasonal manual
labourers in rural areas. In cities, they can be
seen peddling products, shining shoes, begging and
working in shops.
Qusay Khudhair Hussein, 12, dropped out of school a
year ago to earn 5,000 Iraqi dinars a day in a
sandwich shop in the industrial district of Hawija
in Kirkuk province. His family moved to the town, 65
kilometres west of the northern city of Kirkuk, from
Latifiya in Babil province because of security
concerns.
"I am sad about missing school this year," he said
as he served tea with two of his brothers, who are
breadwinners for the rest of the family.
The State Department noted that the ministry of
labour and social affairs did not have enough
inspectors or resources for its child labour unit
and only took action to combat child labour when
backed by international agencies such as the United
Nations Children's Fund.
Hassan Torhan, the head of social care in Kirkuk,
admits the government has not allocated a budget to
fight child labour. Torhan said the worsening
security situation, rising joblessness -
conservative estimates put unemployment at about 30
per cent - and delays in the creation of the new
government "have made child labour a large-scale
phenomenon".
The government's new Social Protection Network,
which is supposed to give financial aid for poor
families, has also been widely criticised as
ineffective. "I think [the support] is insufficient
due to the complex situation," said Torhan.
Economist Mahmood al-Juburi, a professor at Tikrit
university, noted that parents who cannot find jobs
are relying on their children for support. Those
parents often value survival over education,
particularly if they grew up that way themselves.
And children have little health, educational or
social resources, he maintained.
Sadun al-Dulaimi, a 58-year-old pensioner and father
of nine, lives in a small village near Hawija and
can hardly earn enough for his family. He does farm
work with his two sons Ammar and Omar, 15 and 14,
who left school a couple of years ago to give their
father a hand.
"We don't have enough money to cover the expenses of
all of our children," said Dulaimi. "We have to
sacrifice school for some of our children so that
the rest can study."
But Juburi warned that if children continue dropping
out to work, "they will form a new uneducated and
unemployed generation at a time when the country is
in need of experts. This will hinder the path of
progress".
Jasim al-Sabawi is an IWPR trainee journalist in
Kirkuk.
www.iwpr.net
Top |
® 