Child Slaves Used In Sweatshops

It is estimated by the International Labor Organization (ILO) that around 250 million children between the ages of five and fourteen, labour in developing countries. 61% in Asia, 32% in Africa and 7% in Latin America.

Numerous children are slave labourers. They are forbidden to have an education and a normal childhood. Some are detained and beaten and many are deprived of the right to leave the workplace. Numerous children are kidnapped.

Nike likes to present a good public image by donating equipment, offering charity and also likes to remind the public that it has organized stitching centers in places such as Sialkot, Pakistan. However, Nike has been accused of using child labour in the manufacture of its soccer balls in Pakistan.

Thousands of children are employed in sweatshops right across the globe, where they are submitted to biased discipline, acute exploitation, poor working conditions and abuse.
Some of the industries involved are:

·    Shoes and Copy Handbags
The greatest problem is found among sneakers and athletic shoes, as most are made in sweatshops in Asian countries, including Reebok shoes.

·    Sporting Goods
From cricket balls to soccer balls, most are produced in Asian sweatshops

·   Brassware and Base Metal Articles
Children take out molten metal from moulds in furnaces that are around 2000 degrees Fahrenheit and are involved in almost all features of brassware production.

·    Clothing
Numerous garment workers in the U.S.A. work without minimum wage, or overtime pay. The majority are migrant women who work between 60-80 hours a week. Overseas, children are forced to work in clothing sweatshops.

·    Rugs
Almost one million children are illegally employed making hand-knotted rugs worldwide. Approximately 75% of Pakistan’s carpet weavers are girls under 14.

·    Toys
Toys manufactured in countries such as Malaysia, China, Vietnam or Thailand often exploit child labour.

·    Fireworks
Child labour is paid a pittance in the manufacture of fireworks in India.

·    Chocolate
43% of cocoa beans come from the Ivory Coast where child labour is really big business, many being trafficked across the borders from neighbouring countries.

·    Coffee
Coffee is the second largest U.S.A. import, next to oil. Various small coffee farmers receive prices for their coffee that are below the cost of production, frequently using child labour and forcing them into a cycle of poverty and debt.

Children are trafficked for paying off a debt, camel races in the Middle East, the sex industry, in mines, rubbish collectors, to being forced to operate as professional pickpockets in Romania, or being made soldiers in bloody conflicts. Many are involved in theft and drug trafficking.

Other industries in which child labour is prevalent are wood and cork, restaurants, newspaper sellers, wool cleaning, glass, furniture and fixtures, printing, sweet and ice crème vendor, rubber products, publishing and allied trades and leather products.

Countless numbers of children are employed as domestic servants, canteens, workers in hotels, hawkers, wayside shops.

The list seems to go on and on, in spite of the legislation outlawing child labour.