Because Africa is the poorest continent, child labor is widespread. About 32% of the 250 million children are subject to labor. Majority of these children in Africa work in agriculture. Nearly half of the chocolate purchased in the United States links to children in Africa who produce cocoa.
China is the next largest country where child labor is popular. It is estimated that 10 million children do not have an education and work instead, 5 million of which work in factories. While many choose to help their family financially, other children are kidnapped and sold to factories to work.
Child labor in Indonesia is continuously growing. Many children work on jermals, which are fishing boats. The children often work twelve hours a day under unbearable conditions, catching, sorting, and boiling fish.
In Bangladesh, 55 million people are considered below the poverty line, about 6.6 million children work as child laborers in Bangladesh. Most of the jobs that the children work in are hazardous areas. It includes work like shrimp processing, auto repairs and electrical work, but children can be found working in all jobs in Bangladesh. Trafficking is common in Bangladesh. The children are smuggled out of the country and sold. Girls can be sold several times to different owners, and boys are transported to the Middle East.
There is an estimated 250 million child workers ranging between 5 and 14 years old in Latin America. Many of the children work in agriculture, harvesting coffee, bananas, sugar cane, sisal, tobacco, oranges and other fruits and vegetables. Only 60% of all the children in Colombia complete primary school. Five thousand children were found in secret illegal workshops in Guatemala making explosives. The children worked under terrible conditions, and some of died working in the industry.
Even in developed and high-developed nations are guilty of child labor.
In Russia, there are specific laws for childhood employment unlike China and Africa. For example, the minimum working age is 16, or 14 with parental approval. Forced or bonded labor is prohibited. Still though, many children are involved in illegal drug sales. Children are given drugs so that they are obedient.
In the United States, all types of child labor exist from agriculture, factory work, and sexual slavery. Most of the child laborers work on farms in on the west coast. The children are often beaten for low quality work. For example, in Augila, Arizona, the only work in for a large cantaloupe farm. The farm owners do not provide water and sell all beverages. Child laborers are rarely ever educated. Sex slaves are the most common in the U.S. Around 10,000 sex slaves are smuggled from Europe, Eastern Russia, and Mexico into the U.S. The children are sold from 10 thousand to thirty thousand dollars. The slaves are promised a better life but instead forced into slavery. The fewest child laborers work in factories in the U.S, however, injury is the highest in factories.
EJF. Cotton Picking. Uzbekistan.
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