A new report that more than
11,000 children in Swaziland are forced to stay away from school to tend cattle
is only the tip of an iceberg in child exploitation in the kingdom.
A draft Report on Child
Labour In Herding In Rural Areas of Swaziland published in the Times of Swaziland on Thursday (16
November 2017) revealed 11,329 children between the ages of eight and 17 were
not attending school because they were engaged in herding. Of these, 1,917 were
aged between eight and 12 years.
Children reported they were
kept away from school because parents or guardians could not afford school fees
or they had to work to help pay family debts.
But the report failed to
uncover the full extent of forced child labour in Swaziland where King Mswati
III rules as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.
A
report on forced child labour in Swaziland from the United States
Department of Labor covering 2016 identified
what it called ‘categorical worst forms of child labour’ widespread in the kingdom
as livestock herding, domestic work, farming and market vending.
It said Swaziland was ‘complicit
in the use of forced child labour’. It concluded Swaziland made ‘no advancement’
because ‘local chiefs continued to force children to engage in agricultural and
domestic work.
‘Penalties for refusing to
perform this work included evicting families from their village and
confiscating livestock.’
The Department of Labor
said Swaziland had signed a number of
international conventions on child labour but they had not been enforced.
The report said children
were being trafficked outside the kingdom to neighbouring countries such as
South Africa, ‘for commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor in agriculture
and domestic work’.
It also said some Mozambican
boys migrate to Swaziland and become victims of human trafficking and are
forced to conduct street work and herd livestock. Lubombo and Manzini were said
to be the worst regions for forced child labour.
The report said, ‘Swazi
children have become increasingly vulnerable to the worst forms of child labor
due to the high prevalence of HIV, low economic growth, and high poverty
levels.’
See also
SWAZI CHILDREN’S RIGHTS ABUSED
SWAZI
GOVT MISLEADS ON CHILD LABOUR
US
EXPOSES CHILD SEX TRADE
http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2009/06/us-exposes-swazi-child-sex-trade.html
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