WORST FORMS OF CHILD LABOR UPDATE: MADAGASCAR AND

UNCLAS ANTANANARIVO 001216

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR AF/E MBEYZEROV AND DRL/IL TDANG
LABOR FOR DOL/ILAB TMCCARTER

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ELAB EIND ETRD PHUM SOCI USAID PREL MA CN
SUBJECT: WORST FORMS OF CHILD LABOR UPDATE: MADAGASCAR AND
COMOROS

REF: STATE 158223


1. Post provides below updated information on the Worst
Forms of Child Labor in Madagascar and the Union of the Comoros,
keyed to questions in reftel, as available and appropriate.


2. Madagascar
--------------

The Government of Madagascar continues to be a regional leader in
combating child labor and trafficking in persons, including policies
to target the worst forms of child labor like gemstone mining and
sex tourism.

-- Questions A: There were laws to protect children from
exploitation in the workplace and prohibit forced or compulsory
labor. The minimum age for employment was 15 years of age,
consistent with educational requirements. The law allows children
to work a maximum of eight hours per day and 40 hours per week with
no overtime. The law prohibits persons under the age of 18 from
working at night and at sites where there is an imminent danger to
health, safety, or morals. Employers must observe a mandatory
12-hour period between shifts. Occupational health and safety
restrictions include parental authorization and a medical visit
before hiring.

-- Questions A: While already having laws to implement Convention
182, the government adopted a decree July 3 regulating the working
conditions of children, defining the worst forms of child labor,
identifying penalties for employers, and establishing the
institutional framework for its implementation.

-- Questions A: In August, the government adopted a new law
prohibiting all forms of violence against children, including sexual
exploitation and punishment of adult exploiters of child
prostitutes. In December, the government is prepared to send a
draft law to the Parliament for approval that defines child sexual
exploitation, child sex tourism, child pornography and trafficking
in persons and stipulates sanctions for the authors of such crimes,
particularly when committed against children.

-- Questions B: The Ministry of Labor's National Committee for the
Fight Against Child Labor (CNLTE),composed of high-level
government, donor, civil society, and religious group
representatives, is the government's designated authority to
implement child labor laws and policy. The CNLTE is supported by
counterpart agencies at the regional level. To address child labor
violations, government agencies can resort to legal remedies
including criminal penalties and civil fines. The Ministry of Civil
Services and Labor is responsible for enforcing child labor laws and
policies in the formal sector and conducted general workplace
inspections during the year in response to a range of complaints,
not all related to child labor. The Ministry had only 77 inspectors
to carry out its responsibilities, making it difficult to monitor
and enforce child labor provisions effectively. Enforcement in the
much larger informal sector remained a serious problem. The Ministry
of Civil Services and Labor was unable to provide statistics on the
number of child-related investigations conducted, as there is no
central database to collect such information.

-- Questions B: In July in collaboration with UNICEF, the
government completed a one-year program to train and assist security
forces in the protection of children. The government's
establishment of Regional Committees to Combat Child Labor (CRLTE)
(see answers to Question C) throughout the country include training
for responsible local authorities.

-- Questions C: During the year the government continued its
efforts to combat forced child labor and trafficking. The Ministry
of Civil Services and Labor continued to implement its 15-year
national plan to combat the worst forms of child labor, including
prostitution. CNLTE's major activities revolved around mass
awareness raising campaigns regarding the worst forms of child
labor, the importance of education, and raising awareness among all
stakeholders. The celebration of the World Day against Child Labor
in seven regions around the island was the focal point for these
activities. In addition to the existing CRLTE in the north, the
government established two additional CRLTEs in the southwest and
east. In May, the Ministries of Civil Services and Labor and
Finance, supported by the International Labor Organization's
Statistical Information and Monitoring Program on Child Labor
(SIMPOC) and UNICEF, launched a national survey on child labor and
trafficking to better address child exploitation issues. As part of
the ongoing "red card campaign" to raise awareness about the fight
against child labor, the government worked with the Malagasy Soccer
Federation to conduct awareness campaigns in Majunga in February and
in Sambava in May.

-- Questions C: The government's Welcome Centers in Antananarivo,

Tamatave, and Tulear continued to rescue victims of worst forms of
child labor and trafficking. Victims receive remedial education to
assist their reinsertion into schools or vocational training, as
well as counseling on how to avoid becoming a victim again. After
children are returned to their families, the centers continue to
monitor their family and community environment. Since the first
center started operating in 2001, approximately 200 child workers
have benefited from education and training at the centers.

-- Questions C: The government worked closely in collaboration with
the International Program for the Elimination of Child Labor (IPEC),
largely funded by the U.S. Department of Labor, to validate its
action plans and ensure they align with Madagascar's national action
plan. Under this partnership, 16 NGO-implemented programs are
underway to rescue and rehabilitate child workers by inserting
children in to the formal education system and providing vocational
training. Local officials also participated in IPEC-organized
stakeholders' workshops around the country to combat child labor by
identifying intervention strategies and partners.

-- Questions C: The Ministry of Health, in collaboration with the
UN Children's Fund (UNICEF),operated over 14 multi-sector networks
throughout the country to handle individual cases of child
exploitation, including child labor and trafficking.

-- Questions D: The Ministry of Civil Services and Labor is several
years into its 15-year national plan to combat the worst forms of
child labor, and the CNLTE is the GOM's designated authority to
implement child labor laws and policy. In October, the government
launched a consultative process along with a number of implementing
partners to draft a national action plan against all kinds of
violence against children, include child labor, sexual exploitation,
and trafficking, to cover the period from 2008 to 2012. This plan
is expected to be finalized in mid-December. Also, reduction of
child labor is mentioned as one of the government's main goals in
the comprehensive five-year Madagascar Action Plan (MAP) guiding the
country's development.

-- Questions D: The constitution provides for tuition-free public
education for all citizen children and makes primary education until
age 14 compulsory. According to a 2004 World Bank study, 68 percent
of primary school-age children were enrolled. Children in rural
areas generally studied through middle school, whereas children in
urban areas more often continued through the baccalaureate
examination process for entrance into university. Girls and boys
had the same access to education.

-- Questions E: Reliable statistics on the extent and nature of
child labor and trafficking will not be available until the
completion of the SIMPOC/UNICEF-funded national survey on child
labor and trafficking issues in 2008. However, the Household Survey
of 2000 indicated that approximately 33 percent of the child
population between the ages of seven and 17 were child laborers on a
full or part-time basis. Children in rural areas worked mostly on
subsistence family farms and as cattle herders, while those in urban
areas worked in occupations such as domestic laborers, transport of
goods by rickshaw, petty trading, prostitution, stone quarrying,
working in bars, and begging. Children were engaged in salt
production, fishing, deep sea diving, and in the shrimp industry.
The Ministry of Civil Services and Labor estimated that more than
19,000 children were working in mines, mostly in Ilakaka in the
south. Children were trafficked internally for the purposes of
forced labor and sexual exploitation.

-- Questions E: There were reports that persons were trafficked
within the country. The vast majority of cases involved children
and young women, mostly from rural areas, trafficked for domestic
servitude, prostitution, forced mining, and forced labor for
traveling vendors. A sex tourism problem existed in coastal cities,
as well as the capital city of Antananarivo, with a significant
number of children being exploited as prostitutes. International
trafficking was rare, with unconfirmed anecdotal reports of a
limited number of women and girls trafficked for prostitution to the
neighboring islands of Mauritius and Reunion.


3. Union of the Comoros
--------------

-- Questions A: Child prostitution and child pornography are
illegal. The law considers unmarried children under the age of 18 as
minors, and they are protected legally from sexual exploitation,
prostitution, and pornography. There were no statistics regarding
these matters, but they were not considered serious problems. The
law does not prohibit trafficking in persons; however, there were no
reports that persons were trafficked to, from, or within the
country. The law defines 15 as the minimum age for employment, but
the government did not always enforce this law.

-- Questions B: Because of a lack of inspectors, the government

does not enforce legal provisions that address the rights and
welfare of children. The government did not actively enforce child
labor laws, nor was it active in seeking to prevent illegal child
labor.

-- Questions C: Since his election in May 2006, President Ahmed
Abdallah Sambi has made education and children's welfare top policy
priorities. However the government's persistent lack of resources
and capacity means little tangible progress has been made in these
areas. The government mostly allows international agencies to
conduct this work.

-- Questions D: Education is free and compulsory for children below
the age of 16, but the government rarely provided public school
education for children past the age of 14. According to UNICEF, 31
percent of children attended elementary school between 1996 and

2004. Boys generally had greater access to schools than did girls.

-- Questions E: Children usually worked in subsistence farming and
fishing. Some families placed their children in the homes of
wealthier families where they worked in exchange for food, shelter,
or educational opportunities.

-- For more details on child labor in the Comoros, Post suggests
referring to the Department of Labor-funded comprehensive study on
child labor in the Comoros conducted by Riziki Djabir in mid-2007,
which should be available from the Department of Labor.

MARQUARDT