BBC News Top Stories-World Childrens futures at risk as more put to work - UN
September 4, 2023 4 min 752 words
这篇报道揭示了一个严峻的问题，儿童劳工问题日益严重，对全球数百万儿童的未来构成了威胁。国际劳工组织总干事吉尔伯特·洪博指出，全球经济问题导致儿童被迫辍学并卷入劳动力市场，其中一些工作形式涉及性剥削，情况令人担忧。 文章中提到的一些孩子甚至不得不从事性工作来支持家庭，这是一种令人心碎的现象。儿童劳工问题不仅在低收入国家，还在中高收入国家的农业、矿业和建筑等行业中出现，贫困是根本原因。 文章还强调了通货膨胀和生活成本上升对儿童的普遍影响。儿童劳工是家庭不得已的绝望选择，这对孩子们的现在和未来都带来了负面影响。 吉尔伯特·洪博强调了紧急行动的必要性，包括重点关注教育、创造就业机会和打击非法产业。政府需要立即采取行动，因为儿童的未来受到了威胁。这篇报道呼吁我们认识到儿童劳工问题的严重性，并采取措施解决这一全球性挑战。
The future of millions of children is at risk as growing numbers are pulled out of school and into work, the head of the United Nations' labour body has told the BBC.
Gilbert Houngbo, director-general of the International Labour Organization (ILO), said there had been a "regression" in regions around the world amid global economic problems.
Some of the worst forms of work involved sexual exploitation.
He said urgent action was needed.
"Compound the Covid effect with the rise in inflation and the cost of living that followed [and] it has just made things worse," he said. "Unless we act now and we act decisively and fast, the problem will [continue to] worsen."
Data compiled by the UN in early 2020 found that some 160 million children were being subjected to child labour, and that global progress to end it had stalled for the first time in 20 years. Mr Houngbo, the former prime minister of Togo, said early data suggested the trend was continuing.
He said a squeeze on living costs - driven in part by rising food and energy prices caused by the war in Ukraine - had for some families "made the difference between having one meal a day or not". In some cases this had led to the "worst form of child labour", where parents were pushing their children into sex work to help support their families.
In the coastal city of Mombasa in south-eastern Kenya, one 14-year-old girl told the BBC she had no choice but to look for work as her mother struggled to afford food and school fees for her and her two siblings.
To make money, she said she had been "sleeping with men, washing clothes and plaiting hair".
When she does attend school, she said she sometimes feels so hungry that she "can't get the pen to write".
Speaking from their small home, her mother said it was "not easy to tell a child to do something like that".
But she said she was unable to support her family after losing her job during the pandemic, and now struggled to make ends meet washing clothes.
"It is very heart breaking. I would like my child to go to school like other children so that she can get a good job that will help her in the future, but because I don't have any means she is forced to do that job."
A woman running a nearby brothel said her business was "thriving" as she was getting more and more young girls desperate for money.
Mr Houngbo said the rise in child labour was being seen in low- middle- and high-income countries, and in sectors including agriculture, mining and construction.
"Clearly we are in a critical moment," he said, adding that "poverty is the root cause".
The exact circumstances in different countries vary, but the UN children's fund (Unicef) says inflation and the rising cost of living are a "universal concern" that impacts children in a range of ways.
"Many families out of desperation need to resort to really impossible choices and negative coping strategies that are affecting children now and in the long-term," said Natalia Winder-Rossi, director of Unicef's social policy and social protection programme.
The BBC has visited several countries to see how economic problems are affecting children.
In the southern Lebanese city of Sidon, children said they had dropped out of school to support their families.
"When I was at school I used to dream of becoming a teacher. [Now] I stopped dreaming," 14-year-old Alaa, who works cleaning people's houses, told the BBC.
Unicef says more than one in 10 families in Lebanon send their children to work. The country is facing an almost total collapse of its economy.
"I would like to go to school of course, but in this situation who would think of going to school? You need to provide for your family. I'm suffocating... but I have to put up with it," said 15-year-old Muhammad, who sells tissues in the road to passing cars.
But Mr Houngbo said that while the situation was "very worrisome", he remained optimistic that solutions could be found.
He said there was no "one size fits all approach", but policies focusing on education, creating jobs, and cracking down on illicit industries were among the actions that could be taken.
Governments needed to "step up now", he said.
Additional reporting by Barbara Plett-Usher and Caroline Hawley