There has been an upsurge in children still actively engaging in forced labour, child trafficking and modern-day slavery, a trend the International Labour Organization (ILO) has pegged at 160 million globally, representing an increase of 8.4%.
Children mostly affected are under the ages of 5 to 17, with most of them working in jobs that deprive them of their childhood, interfere with their education, or harm their mental, physical, or social development.
Stakeholders in the labour circle have however attributed the recent increase to factors associated with poverty, insecurity and unemployment in the country.
According to the Director of ILO Country Office for Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Liaison Office for ECOWAS, Venessa Phala, children have a right to better lives than engaging in forced labour practices just to shore up income on behalf of their parents.
She argued that the practice of engaging under-aged children in eking out a living runs contrary to the ILO Convention on the World of Work.
Phala, disclosed this while making a welcome remark at the National Child Labour and Force Labour Survey Validation Workshop, held at the United Nations (UN) House in Abuja.
“We all know that the number of children engaging in child labour has risen to 160 million worldwide, which is representing an increase of 8.4 million children when compared with the last report.
“In eradicating the scourge of child labour and forced labour in Nigeria, concerted efforts are required from all stakeholders, part of which is the development of monitoring infrastructure to determine and measure its magnitude, distribution, dimensions and characteristics at the national and sub-national levels,” Phala stated.
Corroborating the ILO’s position, the Permanent Secretary of, Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, Kachollom Daju, said the government is not resting on its oars to see that the fight against child labour and forced labour is reduced to the barest minimum, if not completely eradicated.
She noted that children who are seen as leaders of the future ought not to be exposed to such practices at a tender age but rather shown love and properly catered for, for the general good of the country.
“I will use this opportunity to enjoin Nigerians across the federation to remain steadfast in the fight against the rising child labour, force labour and modern slavery practices so as to eradicate it from our society”.
Recall that the ILO recently sealed a partnership with the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) to unveil a new national survey for child labour in Nigeria with a view to helping the government and key stakeholders in their intervention programmes.
