1.5 mln child workers exploited in Cambodia: rights group

AFP - Thursday, August 30PHNOM PENH (AFP) - - Some 1.5 million
Cambodians under the age of 14 are being forced to work, often in
hazardous conditions, a prominent rights group said Thursday at the
start of a campaign to combat child labour.

"The reality of poverty is that it is indiscriminate and affects not
only adults but also children," the group Licadho said in a statement.

"This sadly forces many young children to engage in domestic and
manual labour to support their families, with a large proportion
working under severe conditions."

Nearly 90 percent of child labourers in Cambodia, one of the world's
poorest countries, work as unpaid help for their families, according
to the World Bank.

About 250,000 of them work in seven of the 16 sectors nationally
recognised as hazardous, which include begging, waste scavenging,
factory work or mining, the bank says.

Both the World Bank and rights groups have urged tougher legislation
that would curb such practices.

Following years of civil unrest and government mismanagement, Cambodia
remains mired in poverty, with 35 percent of its 14 million people
living on less than 50 US cents per day.

Education often becomes the first victim in the daily struggle to
survive, with a majority of child labourers being forced out of school
at an early age.

"These children do not have an opportunity to receive an education and
most of them face exploitation and physical and verbal abuse, every
day," Licadho said.

The group this month launched a two-year awareness-raising campaign
that hopes to expose employers and government officials to the dangers
faced by child labourers.

"Governmental authorities, civil society and the private sector must
work together to rescue child labourers and provide them with physical
and mental rehabilitation services," the group said.

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