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Vietnam finds 1.75 mln child laborers

Xinhua, December 2, 2016 Adjust font size:

Vietnam currently has about 1.75 million laborers who are children or adolescents, mostly in big cities, according to the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) on Friday.

Dang Hoa Nam, head of the Department of Children Protection and Care under the MOLISA, said on the state-run news agency VNA that 67 percent of the laborers work in agriculture, 16 percent in construction and 17 percent in services.

Meanwhile, the rate of unschooled children remained high. As many as 52 percent of the surveyed children have left school, 45.2 percent are still attending school and 2.8 percent have never accessed schooling, said the official.

On average, these kids work between 11-16 hours each day at low wages. Those who work in restaurants receive the most of 1.8 million to 2 million Vietnamese dong (80.7-89.7 U.S. dollars) per month, while many are unpaid, Nam said.

According to MOLISA Deputy Minister Dao Hong Lan, a program to tackle child labor from 2016 to 2020 was approved by Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc in June 2016.

Under the program, measures will be implemented to protect children and models will be set up to equip children with skills to protect themselves and support their families.

At the same time, inspections and strict punishments on child labor abuse will be strengthened, along with education on child abuse prevention, said Lan.

Vietnam faces many challenges to deal with child labor abuse as the awareness of children, their families and employers remains poor.

Lan stressed the need to improve the capacity of law enforcement, as well as mobilize the engagement of all of society, including children's families, businesses, trade unions and social organizations to end child labor, reported VNA. Endit