Laotian government seeks ways to fight child labour

According to a study conducted by the Labour and Social Welfare and Planning and Investment ministries as well as the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in 2010, about 15 per cent of Laos' 1.76 million children were working as labourers.

Child labour refers to employment, which denies young people the chance to be children, to gain an education and enjoy their youth.

The information was provided by Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Welfare Khambay Khattiya at an event for World Day against Child Labour held at the National University of Laos in Vientiane yesterday. Khambay said children are a valuable human resource and will be responsible for the country’s socio-economic development.

In the past, the government, through the Labour and Social Welfare Ministry, has ratified several international conventions and created regulations in relation to protecting the rights of children and women, the deputy minister said.

To protect children and eradicate child labour by 2016, the Labour and Social Welfare Ministry has called on partner countries and international organisations to closely cooperate on the issue via the exchange of knowledge, experience and human resources.

According to the ILO, more than 200 million children worldwide are engaged in some form of employment, with more than half working in hazardous conditions or in forced labour, commercial sexual exploitation and illicit activities such as drug dealing.

These conditions can cause long-term physical, psychological or moral damage to those children, according to ILO national coordinator to Laos, Khemphone Phaokhamkeo.

“Against this backdrop, each year the World Day Against Child Labour on June 12 brings together governments, employees, workers, organisations, civil-society associations and millions of people around the world to remind ourselves of the plight of child labourers and what can and should be done to help them,” she said. This day aims to highlight the continued and urgent need to combat exploitative child labour around the world.

“If nothing is done about child labour, those children will grow up with limited employment prospects and will not be able to lift themselves and their families out of the poverty trap; they will become parents who cannot give their children a better life or hope for the future,” Khemphone said.