Child Laborers at Risk for AIDS

UNICEF warned on Monday that child laborers in Mozambique are at high risk of contracting HIV/AIDS, and the organization said it would encourage the government to find ways to stop child labor. UNICEF Child Protection Officer Victoria Perschler-Desai told the UN Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN) that children under age 15 are working as prostitutes, farm laborers and hawkers in cities and towns in the southeast of the country.

"We found young children working everywhere in the 7 out of 10 provinces where we conducted our research," Perschler-Desai said. Reasons for the child labor problem in the country include few employment opportunities, poverty and the liberalization of the economy. Perschler-Desai told IRIN that UNICEF would be sponsoring workshops and meetings with the labor ministry yesterday and today to outline a draft plan of action to address the problem. A UNICEF report launched in June, entitled "Listening to the Children: Child Workers in the Shadow of AIDS," revealed the layers of children's rights violated by both HIV/AIDS and child labor. The rights to health, education, freedom from poverty and freedom from all forms of exploitation and abuse are all compromised.

The study was carried out by national research teams that included staff from national and local organizations and, in some cases, former child workers. According to the report, the danger of HIV/AIDS is ever-present for vulnerable working children. Young prostitutes in Mozambique have to choose between being paid $1.50 for sex with a condom or $6 for unprotected sex. One child said she did not require her clients to use condoms because she wanted the money, so "I let them do what they want."

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