Child labour a big problem in Yemen

The latest report released by the International Labor Organization, says there are 1.5 million children currently working in Yemen. 

The report also highlights that 21 percent of  Yemen’s 7.7 million children have at one point in time worked in the labor market. 

The agriculture sector was the worst offender for child labor, comprising a little over 56 percent of the industry’s workforce. The household services sector comes in second at 29 percent. 

Mona Salem, the Director of the Child Labor Unit at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor, told the Yemen Times that the government aims to put an end to child labor. The Ministry says it is currently working on investigating  institutions where children are being used. 

She stressed the importance of increasing cooperation between the Education Ministry, Media Ministry, Agriculture Ministry and Fishery Ministry through a committee headed by Amat Alrazaq Homad, the Minister of Social Affairs. She said the committee must work in collaboration with the International Labor Organization in order to reduce the number of working children. 

Talking about the statistics in the report, she said it’s possible the number is significantly larger.  Many child labor issues go unreported and 2011 led to an undocumented increase in child labor as many workers were laid off, forcing children to seek alternative sources of income.