Thailand: Over 10 million children in nation’s workforce, 85,000 in high-risk jobs
(File photo) Eae Hpaw, 16, center, an undocumented child worker, sits with children and teenagers to be registered by officials during a raid on a shrimp shed in Samut Sakhon, Thailand. Pic: AP
A SURVEY carried out by Thailand’s National Statistics Office shows there were more than 10 million children in the Southeast Asian nation’s workforce last year, with more than 85,000 working in hazardous conditions.
Many of the children in the workforce were asked to leave school to help support their families, according to the Bangkok Post,
Pannee Sriyudhsak, who heads the Ministry’s Labor Protection and Welfare department, said 10,876,275 children aged between 5 and 17 were in employment.
The survey found that 65,601 children aged 15 to 17 were working in dangerous conditions. A further 14,093 aged between 13 and 14, and 6,112 between 5 and 12 were also found to be working in high-risk jobs.
Pannee said 692,819 children between the ages of 15 and 17 were employed in safe environments, but worked more than 48 hours a week. Half of them worked in the agriculture sector, while 19 percent were in trade and another 12 percent in restaurants.
While the figures showed high numbers of child workers when compared to other countries in the region, a recent report by the US labor department said Thailand made a significant advances in efforts to eliminate the worst forms of child labor in 2014.
This came after the government made changes to its legal framework to raise the minimum age for agricultural work from 13 to 15 years, and for work on sea fishing vessels from 16 to 18 years.
“However, children in Thailand continue to engage in child labor in agriculture, including in the shrimp and seafood processing sector, and in the worst forms of child labor, including in commercial sexual exploitation,” the US labor department said.
It added that Thailand remains weak in its enforcement efforts, particularly in the fishing, agriculture, manufacturing, and home-based business sectors, as well as in the informal sector.
