It has been revealed that there are 135 child vendors in Samoa with businesses using them to sell their products, while some are scavenging at the local dump and not going to school.
This was revealed at the Samoa National Child Labor Workshop and Launching of Samoa Child Labor Follow up Rapid Assessment at the Taumeasina Island Resort.
International Labor Organization (ILO) Director for Pacific Countries Martin Karimli said, in the Pacific, there’s clear evidence that children are susceptible to the worst forms of child labor and trafficking.
“ILO child labor research studies in some Pacific island Countries found children in the worst forms of child labor, including hazardous work (agriculture, scrap metal scavenging and construction), commercial sexual exploitation and illicit activities such as drug trafficking, begging and pick pocketing,” said Karimli.
The National Child Labor and Trafficking Forum in Samoa in June 2014, found that street vendors have been found to be engaged in child labor—through street vending.
It is visible daily and involves young children to teenage children, during school hours and leading to late hours at night, affecting their health and well-being and their education.
The Rapid Assessment of Children work on the Streets in Samoa was commissioned by International Labor Organization, in response to the concerns raised at the Samoa Forum in 2014 over the lack of data and information on child labor in Samoa.
The Secretariat for the Child Labor Force, Albert Meredith said that their gathering was to develop a national action plan to respond to the concerns of child street vendors.
“We’re trying to develop a national action plan or a national program that sets out clear objectives that we want to achieve over a two to three-year period,” he said.
Photo: Samoa Observer
