SENEGAL: INFORMATION ON THE USE OF CHILD LABOR

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 DAKAR 000215 SIPDIS SENSITIVE STATE FOR AF/W, AF/RSA, DRL/AE AND INR/AA DOL/ILAB for Tina McCarter DRL/ILCSR for Tu Dang E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ELAB EIND ETRD SOCI PHUM PGOV PINS KDEM SG SUBJECT: SENEGAL: INFORMATION ON THE USE OF CHILD LABOR REF: 08 STATE 127448 DAKAR 00000215 001.2 OF 002 ¶1. (SBU) Responses are keyed to questions in reftel. Begin report: ¶2. (SBU) Senegalese law prohibits forced or compulsory labor, including by children; however, such practices were widespread in ¶2008. The law bans the exploitation of child labor, and there are regulations on child labor that set the minimum working age, working hours, and working conditions and that bar children from performing particularly dangerous jobs; however, child labor remains a problem. Most child labor occurred in the informal economy where labor regulations were not generally enforced. Economic pressures and inadequate educational opportunities often push rural families to emphasize income generating activities over education for their children. ¶3. (SBU) The minimum age for employment was 15; however, children under the age of 15 continued to work in traditional labor sectors, particularly in rural areas where there was little enforcement of child labor laws. The Government's National Agency of Demography and Statistics published in August 2008 a national child labor survey which measured the economic activities of children during the prior 12 months. According to the survey 1,378,724 of the country's 3,759,074 children between the ages of 5 and 17 years (37 percent) worked. Child labor was especially common in the regions of Tambacounda, Louga, and Fatick. Child labor is prevalent in many informal and family-based sectors such as agriculture, fishing, artisanal gold mining, tailoring shops, garage mechanics, and metal and wood working shops. Many religious instructors in Koranic schools brought young boys (Talibes) from rural villages to urban areas and held them under conditions of servitude, forcing them to beg on a daily basis in unsanitary and dangerous conditions or work in the agriculture sector under the threat of physical punishment. ¶4. (SBU) One particularly egregious area of child labor was in the mining and rock quarry sector. Child gold washers, mostly between the ages of 10 and 14, worked over eight hours a day without training or protective equipment. Children in artisanal gold mining operations use mercury in order to separate gold from soil, leading to sickness. Children worked long hours in rock quarries, crushing rock and carrying heavy loads without protection. Both types of work resulted in serious accidents and long-term illness. ¶5. (SBU) Senegal's main agricultural products that are generally grown for internal consumption are peanuts, millet, corn, cassava, beans, melons, rice, sugarcane, fruit (depending on the season: mangoes, oranges, and mandarins),vegetables (onions, potatoes, tomatoes, yucca and lettuce),livestock, and for export, cotton. The use of Talibes in the gathering of cashew, mango and orange harvests is widespread in the Casamance region of Senegal. Talibes work all day for about two dollars harvesting these products. The adults who employ them in such tasks not only subject them to long hours of work but expose them to the dangers of land mines in the areas of Kandialan, near Ziguinchor, and Niaguis. ¶6. (SBU) Children working in the fishing industry mostly come from the Lebou traditional families; however, many fishermen now come from the interior of Senegal and other surrounding countries. Catches include shark, broadbill, blue martin, catfish, mackerel, tuna, eagle ray, sole, sweetlips, mullet, herring, squid and shellfish. Some inland fishing techniques potentially expose children to explosives. ¶7. (SBU) Children also work in the collection of steel scraps which they sell for about six cents a kilo. In Thies it is common to use Talibes to collect garbage from homes for a very small fee. These young children often collapse under the heavy loads they carry. Child labor in the production of goods is not a major problem in Senegal. Children do work in mechanic garages and fish markets but not in the manufacturing sector where child labor laws are more strictly enforced. Children are, however, employed in Senegal's thousands of small tailoring shops and also in small-scale weaving activities, both with yarn and natural fibers. There are also significant problems related to the use of underage maids. ¶8. (SBU) According to an October 2007 government survey, 90 percent of children in Kaolack, Fatick, and Ziguinchor carry out tasks detrimental to their health and education. The study also found that 75 percent of girls were responsible for domestic chores, leading to many dropping out of school. ¶9. (SBU) The Ministry of Labor, through the Labor Inspection Office, and social security inspectors are responsible for investigating and DAKAR 00000215 002.2 OF 002 initiating lawsuits in child labor cases. Inspectors can visit any institution during work hours to verify and investigate compliance with labor laws and can act on tips from trade unions or ordinary citizens. However, labor inspectors had very poor working conditions and lacked transportation to conduct their mission effectively. In practice inspectors did not initiate visits because of a lack of resources and relied on unions to report violators. Labor inspectors closely monitored and enforced minimum age rules within the small formal wage sector, which included state owned corporations, large private enterprises, and cooperatives. However, there were no statistics available on the number of violations found. ¶10. (SBU) The government has raised awareness of the dangers of child labor and exploitive begging through seminars with local officials, NGOs, and civil society. The government participated in a project funded by a foreign government to withdraw 3,000 children from and prevent 6,000 others from entering exploitive child labor in agriculture, fishing, begging, and domestic service. The government participated in an ILO project to combat child labor. To reduce the incidence of exploitive begging, the Ministry of Women, Family, Social Development and Women's Entrepreneurship is continuing with a program to help support 48 Koranic schools whose teachers do not force their students to engage in begging. ¶11. (SBU) The national minimum wage was 209 CFAF ($0.42) per hour, which did not provide a decent standard of living for a worker and family. The Ministry of Labor was responsible for enforcing the minimum wage. Labor unions also acted as watchdogs and contributed to effective implementation of minimum wage in the formal sector. The minimum wage was not respected in the informal sector, especially for domestic workers. Within the formal sector, the law mandates for most occupations a standard workweek of 40 to 48 hours with at least one 24-hour rest period, one month per year of annual leave, enrollment in government social security and retirement plans, safety standards, and other measures; however, enforcement was irregular. The law does not cover the informal sector. Premium pay for overtime was required in the formal sector. ¶12. (SBU) While there are legal regulations on workplace safety, they often were not enforced. There is no explicit legal protection for workers who file complaints about unsafe working conditions. Workers, including foreign or migrant workers, had the right to remove themselves from situations that endangered health or safety without jeopardy to their employment; however, it was seldom exercised due to high unemployment and a slow legal system. ¶13. (SBU) According to the Minister of Labor no new laws have been passed in 2008 and no reforms to existing laws were drafted for the year. BERNICAT