The permanent secretor of the ministry of labor and social affairs had attended the IV Global Conference on the Sustained Eradication of Child Labour which was organized by the Government of Argentina with help of ILO and held in Buenos Aires on 14-16 November 2017.
The main objective of the meeting was to present and share the significant progress has been made globally in the fight against all forms of child labour between 2000 and 2017.
During the meeting the permanent secretor of the ministry of labor and social affairs had briefly shared the current situation of Somali children specially Child labor by quoting” Somalia is one of the worst countries in the world in the use of child labor. It is estimated that around 42% of Somali children are between the ages of 5 to 14 and are forced into working in brutal environments to either pay for education, some to support their families or even to survive.
In additional to that many children work, mostly out of necessity due to the high rates of poverty and unemployment across the country. Child labor is an important issue in Somalia with a rising number of street children and a continuing influx of displaced families. There are strong attitudes towards child work, primarily indicating that children are believed to have a responsibility to support the family. This is especially relevant given the extreme levels of unemployment and poverty where children may be an essential form of income for a family.
Ministry of Labour & Social Affairs currently working the strategies to enforce labour laws, promotes safety and health of children and develops and coordinates implementation of relevant policies. Including the prevention of exploitative labor that affects the wellbeing of Somali children, in order to improve the realization on the right of Somali children particularly children effected by exploitative work
Finally the permanent secretary had a separate meeting with director general of the International Labor Organization Mr. Guy Ryder requested to support Somali children by providing projects to reduce child labor issue in Somalia.
