Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Agenzia Fides) - Eight hundred thousand children around the world work for days, undergoing all kinds of risks and unbearable hardships for their young age. According to the Camino Juvenil Solidario in Madrid, however, this figure responds to unreliable statistics. Although the United States and Somalia are the only countries in the world that have not yet ratified the Convention on the Rights of children, these children work in fields, without appropriate hours and exposed to inhalation of toxic chemical pesticides. They are used in the production of clothing, folding and packing in sewing laboratoried in New York, in the collection of peppers in New Mexico, beans in Florida, cucumbers in Michigan, green peppers in Tennessee, apples in New York, grapes in California, mushrooms in Pennsylvania, peaches in Illinois and sorghum in Texas. In other countries such as Thailand, more than 12% work in the fields, others in the breeding of shrimps and fish, they are exploited in prostitution or as domestic slaves. In Ecuador, a government report stated that 367 000 minors are children between 5 and 14 years of age exploited in illegal labor: prostitution, begging, domestic slavery. In Piura, in Peru, 38% of children under 14 work in the mines in Suyo, with huge risks. Equally alarming are the data of child exploitation in the Department of Meta, in Colombia, where over 18% of children are used in illegal work. About 30% of children were "tempted" to join armed gangs or prostitution. Over 70% left school to work. (AP) (Agenzia Fides 09/03/2012)
