Child-labour alert

JA steps up efforts to stamp out child labour two years after US warned that not enough was being done to prosecute the culprits

THE UNITED States Embassy in Kingston, in 2009, applauded the Bruce Golding administration for its efforts to wipe out child labour but claimed that there was a disconnect between this desire and actual results.

Now, two years later, Jamaican officials agree that more needs to be done to tackle what is a problem worldwide.

According to a May 2009 diplomatic cable from the US Embassy accessed by The Gleaner through the non-profit international media entity WikiLeaks, despite significant steps to pass and enforce legislation on child labour by the Jamaican Government, the conviction rates in the country remained low.

At the time of the cable, the embassy reported that only three cases of child labour had been brought before the courts in Jamaica's history, and only one successfully prosecuted.

In the cable, the embassy officials noted that the Government had moved to increase the compulsory age of education from 16 to 18 and confirmed children's right to education under the Education Act, but argued that despite these developments, child-labour practices remained a concern.

According to the cable, the low level of prosecution - despite the Government's attempt to address the problem - was a result of the complex nature of the issue coupled with the State's inability to quantify and detect abuse.

difficult to detect

"Child labour is difficult to detect in Jamaica due to the underground nature of the trade. Sixty per cent of Jamaica's workforce is in the informal sector, while 86 per cent of births are to unwed mothers," the cable said.

"Children are often pressured to enter the workforce at 14, sacrificing their education to provide for their families. While child labour is not prevalent in large industries, due to GOJ (Government of Jamaica) regulations and inspections, established sectors often spur cottage industries that employ children," the cable added.

Responding to the embassy's claims, Marva Ximinnies, director of the Child Labour Unit at the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, argued that child labour remains a problem in Jamaica because more persons are needed to bring the guilty to book.

"The worst type of child labour such as prostitution and the production of pornography materials are not done in the public space, and so it is there and glaring, but because of fear, persons won't come forward," Ximinnies claimed.

"It requires a particular type of vigilance, and persons are not raising the kind of alarm they should," she added.

According to Ximinnies, research that was done in 2002 indicated that 16,000 children were involved in child labour in Jamaica.

Of that number, 7,000 were engaged in the most hazardous types of child labour.

Ximinnies noted that Jamaica's international partners have indicated that the activity is likely to be on the increase.

"We wouldn't want it to mushroom beyond control, so we want to keep the public informed about how they can identify it and prevent it from happening," she told The Gleaner.

Ximinnies called on adults to be concerned and more vigilant to ensure that children's rights are not violated.