World Day Against Child Labour on June 12
Osnabrück, June 9, 2023 – On the occasion of the International Day Against Child Labour, the children's rights organization terre des hommes is drawing attention to the dramatic situation of children in Afghanistan. The people of Afghanistan are suffering one of the greatest humanitarian catastrophes of our time; 97 percent of the population is poor and must survive on less than US$2.15 per day, and nine out of ten families currently do not have enough to eat. "This crisis is a children's crisis: 28 million people, or two-thirds of the population, are dependent on humanitarian aid. Half of them – 15 million – are children," said Joshua Hofert, spokesperson for the board of terre des hommes .
One consequence of this hardship is the dramatic increase in child labor. terre des hommes spoke with working children in the provinces of Herat, Nangarhar, and Kabul. They reported that they have to work because their families have no income, all their personal belongings have been sold, and there is hardly anything left to eat. At the same time, children are finding no help: protection programs have been ended by the de facto Taliban government, and girls have been banned from attending school after the sixth grade.
Because the de facto government does not release figures and there is no press freedom, the number of working children can only be estimated. Figures are available from three provinces, where a third more children are toiling than last year. The United Nations estimates that 1.6 million children work under dangerous conditions.
Children are evidently working in brickyards, carpet factories, auto repair shops, and blacksmiths, in small stores, and in markets, where they carry loads or sell goods. On the streets of Kabul and Herat, children beg for a piece of bread and rummage through piles of garbage for food. According to the United Nations, in the first three months of this year alone, 134 children were injured or killed by unexploded ordnance and old weapons they were trying to collect and sell as scrap metal. In rural areas, children work in the fields and tend livestock.
Underage boys and girls remain invisible in the worst forms of child labor: children toil in mines, salt extraction, and poppy fields; they are forced to smuggle drugs or weapons. Boys are recruited for armed groups, and girls and boys are sold for sexual exploitation. Because millions of families have had to borrow money to survive, the number of children working off these debts is rising. Debt bondage is particularly widespread in brickyards, private households, and carpet factories.
The Taliban's policies make serious human rights violations part of their government agenda, thereby exacerbating suffering and hindering aid efforts. Particularly egregious is the oppression of women and their bans on working in international aid organizations. As a result, 10,000 women have lost their jobs, and millions of women and children have been deprived of the services of midwives, doctors, social workers, and teachers.
“In light of this dramatic situation, we call on the German government and the international community to provide urgently needed humanitarian aid and protect children from hunger and exploitation,” said Joshua Hofert. “The UN estimates the need for emergency aid for 2023 at US$4.62 billion, but so far the international community has only pledged US$259 million. Furthermore, the World Food Programme has already announced it will reduce aid deliveries, as it is short US$900 million just to cover the period from May to October 2023. Afghanistan is thus heading towards a famine with millions of victims.”
Following the suspension of development aid and the bans on women working abroad, the German government has announced aid that will be "independent of government and close to the population," but is providing significantly less funding: While Germany provided €527 million in aid in 2022, of which €330 million was for humanitarian aid alone, the Foreign Office has so far only pledged €39 million for humanitarian aid this year.
terre des hommes Germany supports projects for 20,000 children and 41,000 adults in eleven Afghan provinces and across the border into Pakistan with a total budget of 5.2 million euros. Funding is provided for education and vocational training programs, income-generating activities, psychosocial support, and peacebuilding work.
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»Child Labor Report 2023: Exploitation of Children in Afghanistan«