BENIN: CHILD LABOR PERSISTS IN STONE QUARRIES

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 COTONOU 000451

SIPDIS

DOL FOR ILAB/RRIGBY AND DGARMS
STATE FOR AF/W DORSEY LOCKART

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ELAB PHUM EIND SOCI BN
SUBJECT: BENIN: CHILD LABOR PERSISTS IN STONE QUARRIES

REF: (A) COTONOU 314 (B) 07 COTONOU 915


1. SUMMARY: Child labor continues to be used in stone crushing
quarries in central Benin. On June 24, 2008 a mission team visited
the quarries to gage the magnitude of the use of child labor in
them. The team observed that children continue, in significant
numbers, to engage with their parents in stone (granite) crushing.
Without increased government enforcement of existing child labor
laws and alternative forms of economic activity for women in this
region it is unlikely this problem will end soon. END SUMMARY

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Children involved in Stone Crushing
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2. A mission team including the Political Officer, Political
Assistant and Self-help/Democracy and Human Right Funds Coordinator
saw children aged between 5-18 crushing stones in quarries that were
located in the region of Dassa-Zoume, in the department of the
Collines, central Benin, during a June 24 visit. In Tchatchegou, a
small village north of Dassa, the team found 38 children working
with adults in a granite quarry located within view of Benin's main
north-south highway. A number of other children were found working
in another abandoned GOB quarry further from the road. The presence
of visitors did not worry children or adults at either site. An
adult worker at the site closest to the road told PolOff that visits
from delegations, including the GOB, were frequent. The team also
spoke to adults and children in Mondjigangan, another village in the
region, about the use of children to crush rocks. According to
Laurette Ekon, the Program Officer for the International Labor
Office's International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor
(ILO-IPEC),the problem is not limited to the Dassa area but also
exists in Beterou a village in northeastern Benin. According to
Ekon, local entrepreneurs in Beterou buy crushed stones directly
from children.


3. According to adults involved in the production of crushed rocks,
the children work under the auspices of an adult who is often a
parent and usually the mother. Adults that Poloff interviewed
affirmed that the children working with them were their own and that
the children assisted them in crushing stones. Other adults present
explained that they also paid children from surrounding villages to
crush stones. All of the adults encountered on the sites
acknowledged that stone crushing is a hazardous activity as
fragments of rock occasionally wound children while crushing. The
adults also acknowledged they were aware that child labor is against
the law and said that given their poor condition, they were forced
to engage in this activity for money.


4. It takes about one hour and a half for a child to produce a
bucket of crushed stones. Children are normally paid 400 FCFA
(approximately .97 USD) or the equivalent in stones after they
produce four buckets of crushed stones (six hours of work).
According to adults at the sites, the number of stone-crushing
children increases during holidays as they use the money paid to
them to buy school supplies and clothes. Additionally, children come
to the quarries after school and during breaks in their classes to
earn pocket money. Other children are brought to the sites by their
parents to assist them in their work.


5. A prior attempt to assist the women involved in crushing rocks in
Tchatchegou failed because of inappropriate technology. In 2005,
the GOB provided the Women's Association in Tchathegou with a stone
crushing machine. The person responsible for the machine, El Hadj
Fassassi, told the team that stones first needed to be broken into
smaller pieces before being processed by the machine and that the
machine's fuel consumption was too expensive. Women stopped using
the machine, because it did not save them time and cost too much.


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NGO and Government Response
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6. Ekon, ILO-IPEC's program officer told post that in 2005 ILO-IPEC
produced, in conjunction with GOB's Office of Labor, a documentary
film on stone crushing children that was extensively broadcast on
local television stations. She said that anti-child labor NGOs use
this film to conduct awareness campaigns in stones quarries regions.
She also related the efforts of ILO and the Labor Office in 2003 to
end child exploitation in the Beterou quarries (mentioned above).
According to Ekon, the Labor Office in cooperation with ILO, rescued
one hundred children from those quarries and enrolled them in
schools. In addition, the Labor Office equipped a stone quarry with
a stone crushing machine. Gazard Gertrude, a Labor Administrator
serving at the Labor Office told Post that the Labor Office was
currently standing up a team for an inspection to the stone
quarries.


COTONOU 00000451 002 OF 002


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Comment
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7. Comment: Exploitive child labor exists openly in the hilly region
of Dassa. Beninese authorities are well aware of the scope of the
problem but are constrained in their effort to fight it by a lack of
labor inspectors to check quarries and to arrest perpetrators.
Implementation of anti-child labor legislation is also lax in this
region. Any attempt to use law enforcement to end this exploitation
would need to be accompanied by programs to provide alternative
sources of income for the adults, primarily women, involved in stone
crushing. Without other economic outlets child labor would almost
certainly resurface in areas further away from government oversight.
End Comment.

BROWN