King Mswati III, the absolute monarch in Swaziland,
has been named in an global report on human trafficking for forcing children to
work in his fields.
One organisation has called this modern day ‘slavery’.
It is not the first time the King has been criticised
for using forced labour.
The annual Trafficking
in Persons Report for 2017 from the United States State
Department stated it had been reporting conditions in Swaziland for the past
five years. It said, ‘Swazis are culturally expected to participate in the
seasonal weeding and harvesting of the King’s fields and those who may refuse
are subject to coercion through threats and intimidation by their chiefs.’
A report Child Labor and Forced Labor
from the US Department of Labor looking at 2016 stated penalties imposed by
chiefs included ‘evicting families from their village and confiscating
livestock’.
King Mswati was at the centre of an international controversy in January
2015 when Swazi Media Commentary revealed that schools in Swaziland were
forced to stay closed after Christmas so children could weed the King’s
fields. As many as 30,000 children were thought to have missed schooling as a
result.
The Global Slavery Index for
2016
reported that the Swazi Government ‘attempted to backtrack on its intentions
when its use of unpaid child labour was reported by international media’.
See also
SWAZI
GOVT MISLEADS ON CHILD LABOUR
KIDS
FORCED TO WEED KING’S FIELDS
http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2015/01/kids-forced-to-weed-kings-fields.html
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