Child labourers are prone to physical, psychological and sexual violence, aid workers saySahib Jan, 10, steers his way through crowds of people with a wheelbarrow overloaded with sacks of 20kg wheat flour in the Torkham border town connecting the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar to Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province.
Every day, from 7am to 4pm, he moves all kinds of goods across the semi-open border to earn 200-300 Afghanis (less than US$6).
“I am working to feed my family,” he said, adding that his father was ill and unable to work. “The police often beat me and I feel pain in my back and legs at nights.”
About 1,000-1,600 children, aged from eight to 17, are involved in wage labour in the Torkham border area, according to aid agencies and provincial authorities.
Most are prone to physical, psychological and sexual violence, aid workers say.
“Many of these children do not attend school and most of them do not have access to medical care, drinking water and other essential services,” Mirwais Ahmadzai, head of Nangarhar’s human rights department, told IRIN.
Hired for smuggling
For decades the 2,400km-long porous border between Afghanistan and Pakistan has remained volatile and difficult to control, in turn promoting the smuggling of all kinds of goods, movement of terrorist groups and other illegal activities.
Officials in both countries concede that Taliban insurgents freely cross the border while criminal networks smuggle arms and narcotics.
The hike in food prices in 2007 prompted the Pakistani government to impose a strict ban on wheat exports to Afghanistan, but the business has continued through smuggling networks using child labour.
“We carry sacks of wheat flour from the other [Pakistani] side of the border to Afghanistan through secret routes,” said Ramazan, 11.
The Torkham child labourers are also believed to be involved in smuggling arms and other illicit consignments.
Need for ‘fundamental work’
Agencies such as Terre des hommes (Tdh), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Save the Children have helped reintegrate some 700 child labourers from Torkham with their families in Nangarhar and several nearby areas.
“Currently we have over 400 of these children at our educational centre in Torkham,” Saif-u-Rehman Momand of the Tdh in Nangarhar, told IRIN.
Agencies talked about medical, educational and other kinds of assistance for the children, but several child labourers and the head of the human rights department said there was little meaningful support available.
“Most aid agencies talk eloquently about assistance, but in reality one can hardly find any fundamental work done for the benefit of these children,” Ahmadzai of the human rights department said.
“Fundamental work means sustainable poverty alleviation, creating development opportunities for children and also improving the living conditions of vulnerable families,” he said.
Aid workers say it is very difficult to properly monitor the situation of child labourers in the border area because they regularly move back and forth in two countries.
About 40 of Afghanistan’s estimated 27 million people are under 15 and about 31 percent of them are involved in child labour, according to the Central Statistics Office and UNICEF.
Disclaimer:This material comes to you via IRIN, the humanitarian news and analysis service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the United Nations or its Member States.
Photo: Copyright IRIN
