Analysis by Annabelle Ghanem, Staff Writer and Dina Richani, Staff Writer

June 12th, 2020

Lebanon has witnessed a drastic increase in the number of children engaged in labor in recent years. While the Syrian crisis has exacerbated the condition of many families, children in Lebanon, even prior to the influx of refugees, have resorted to long hours of low wages. Victims of child labor commonly carry out unpredictable work and are exposed to brutality, abuse and exploitation. Child labor has long deprived kids of their right to an education and hindered their development. 

“My dream is to continue schooling. But even if we go back to school, we will come back to the streets after work.” says Mohamad, a ten year old Lebanese boy selling roses on Badaro Street. “Even if I get sick, I come here. I have been coming for the past two years where I walk from the camp to the street back and forth daily.” he added in an exclusive interview with The Phoenix Daily.

Types of child labor are widely evident across the country. Children are exposed to various forms, including hazardous work, bonded or compulsory labor, recruitment into armed related groups, working on streets, yet primarily children are involved with agricultural labor. As the International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that around 218 million children between 5 and 17 are working, around 70.9% are in the agricultural sector. In Lebanon, around 74.8% of children reported working in agriculture with a relatively higher rate amongst girls. The working arena is far from safe for any child where 30.3% have reported to have been hurt. 

With millions of children being driven into child labor, the United Nations appointed June 12th as the official World Day Against Child Labor, in hopes of combating and educating people on this widespread form of modern-day slavery. Scattered across the globe, many children find themselves roped into labor, forced to endure excruciating circumstances that put their health and safety at great risk. Being completely robbed of an education, children exposed to child labor are not being presented with an adequate amount of opportunities to turn their life around. As a result, children who are often enslaved in the cycle of child labor, grow up to work in the same organizations, enduring the same forms of injustices, for the remainder of their lives. For centuries, child labor has proved to be one the most prominent forms of exploitation, abusing the horrible financial circumstances of families, and trafficking kidnapped children, for company profit and underpaid labor.

Ultimately, it is essential to acknowledge the prevalence of slavery in the 21st century, despite what may be visible to the naked eye. And unfortunately, kids have always had the greatest appeal to employers, due to their embodiment of the ideal criteria needed to be exploited; vulnerability, desperation, and obliviousness. 

Despite millions upon millions of children exposed to child labor, the international community has strived to combat the exploitation of minors since the 20th century, making it one of their top priorities on the international agenda. In fact, in 2019 the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution setting 2021 “as the year for the Elimination of Child Labor.” Therefore, the UN has collaborated with the International Labor Organization (ILO) to strengthen its response methods and strategies, and achieve their goal. Nevertheless, several treaties were previously passed and ratified regarding the circumstances of children and exploitation, starting with the ILO’S Minimum Age Convention of 1973, followed by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, established in 1989, and of course, the Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labour of 1999. Although these treaties have almost unanimously been ratified by member state, we still find large numbers of child labor all across the globe, with no consequences thrown towards any nation for its lack of cooperation. In fact, the only nation to have not ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child is the world’s powerhouse, the United States of America. 

So why is the exploitation of children so common across the globe, if only one UN member state did not ratify the convention? 

These treaties and resolutions, however beautifully written as they may be, are meaningless without proper execution, and therefore do not solidify the international community’s stance against child labor, but rather showcase its inability to abide by the international agreements set to combat the issue. Unfortunately, Lebanon can be seen as a primary example of a country who disregards those international agreements, having ratified all three conventions, in addition to the Arab Labor Convention, with little to no implementation of any of their requirements. 

Why is that?

In Lebanon, until 2018, an estimate of 62,000 Lebanese children, 37,000 Syrian children, and 4,500 Palestinian children engaged in child labor. According to Decree No. 8987, the Lebanese government recognizes child labor based on activities of exposure to physical, psychological and moral hazards as well as actions that refrain the child from practicing their right to education. However, the Decree No. 8987 finds a few circumstances of hazardous work to be allowable for children above 16 years. The preconditions consist of physical, mental and moral health protection and training. Even if officials attempted to combat child labor within Lebanon, they would be faced with a large amount of illegal immigrant cases, for a large amount of children being exploited within its borders are indeed not Lebanese, making their attainment of basic human rights far from achievable.

To topple this, many migrant domestic workers who come into Lebanon to make a living are under the working age. At times, employers are aware that the help received at home is delivered by someone approximately their children’s age, but remain silent about it. Several migrant domestic workers are also promised beforehand proper working conditions and hence convinced to travel with forged age on identifications forms. This causes implications because under the Lebanese Labour Law, Decree 1946 and amendments, the employer is held responsible for age verification. 

It is no secret that the global fight against the exploitation of children is far from over, especially in Lebanon, and the coronavirus pandemic has not made it any easier. With more and more families pushed down towards the poverty line, and as education institutions remain closed, children are driven towards the workforce, in an attempt to help their families get through these critical times. Thus, we predict that the global pandemic might indeed derail the United Nations’ 2021 goal for the eradication of child labor, expanding recruitment and prolonging the prevalence of child exploitation.