==========================================
Estimates show that children in Colombia
usually work nine hours a day. The poverty
that affects many regions of Latin America
prevents change for the better. According
to the ILO, children's wages amount to as
much as a third of a family's income.
========================================== 

DEUTSCHE PRESSE-AGENTUR

Monday, 13 April 1998

Two-and-a-half million children forced to work in Colombia 

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By Hendrik Groth


BOGOTA -- Coal is an important source of export earnings in 
Colombia. The South American country has large reserves, enough 
experts believe, to supply 10 per cent of world demand. The 
country's coal mining companies export about 60 million tons each 
year --at very low prices. It is no wonder that in many mines 
children are employed instead of more expensive, well-trained 
workers.

For the child labourers --often as young as 10-- basic safety 
precautions, protection against coal dust and minimum employment 
benefits are concepts as foreign to them as a classroom.

According to the Geneva-based International Labour Organization 
(ILO), 26 per cent of children in Latin America are forced to work 
hard for their living. Human rights organizations estimate that about 
2.5 million children in Colombia are forced to work. 

In the cities, children usually begin their working lives at the age of 
10. According to the United Nations, only about 60 per cent leave 
school with a primary school diploma.

In the provinces, where there is less infrastructure and many 
families live a hand-to-mouth existence, it's even worse. There, 5-
year-olds often have to do their bit to contribute to the family 
income. Ruthless businessmen and criminals exploit their hardship. 
In Colombia, children frequently help harvest the coca leaves from 
which drug traffickers and local guerrillas make cocaine.

The kids would love to have a five-day week. Instead they work six 
days, sometimes seven days a week, enjoy no health or 
unemployment benefits and are paid pitiful wages.

Estimates show that children in Colombia usually work nine hours a 
day. The poverty that affects many regions of Latin America 
prevents change for the better. According to the ILO, children's 
wages amount to as much as a third of a family's income.

But in Colombia, children's rights are not just being violated in coal 
mines or by the drug mafia. Child labourers also toil in one of the 
country's biggest export industries --flowers. They work on the 
plantations where many of the world's flowers grow. In the 
enormous greenhouse complexes near Bogota, children are 
reportedly exposed to pesticides that have long been banned in 
industrialized countries. 

And the problem doesn't stop there. Pimps too exploit the economic 
necessities of many families. Underage girls in particular are 
virtually sold off to work as prostitutes.

Copyright 1998 Deutsche Presse-Agentur