KABUL (SW): In the corner of the capital, in Deh Sabz area, children were busy working in the brick factory. One loaded the bricks in the car; the other removed the hot bricks from the kilns.
Dusts covered the hands and faces of these children, and their hands and feet were cracked and calloused. These children work from the dawn to the dusk, and sleep at night with ailing body to see the nightmare of tomorrow’s work.
I went to the brick factories and talked to a few of these children. One of them said that during taking out the bricks from the refractory furnaces, his hands get burned and he often works with a burn wound all the day long.
Safiullah and Masood are 17 and 14 years old respectively, and they have been working for seven years in brick factories. They are accustomed to the pain of burns on their hands and feet; though they are not satisfied with the wages they earn.
Safiullah and Masood said the bricks work have made them tired and exhausted. Also, the hard work in the brick factories prevented these children from getting education.
Mohammad Sadiq Malik, one of the owners of these brick factories in Deh Sabz, said he has been operating this factory for nearly 12 years and his workers are between ages of 8 to 25 years old. According to Mohammad Sadiq, children working there had come from the war-torn provinces to Deh Sabz, and poverty is the main reason behind their work in the brickwork factories.
Mohammad Sabir, another owner of the brickwork factories, told Salam Watandar, that “because of the exhausting work of the brickwork factories, most children who works here suffer from back pain, feet pain, burn and cracks on hands and feet”.
In accordance with the law of the violence against children, the child is defined as a person who has not completed the 18 years of age. Similarly, based on this law, the teen is a person aged between 12 to 18 years.
Abdul Fatah Ashrat Ahmadzai, spokesperson for the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, Martyrs and Disabled (MoLSAMD), said that until recently, child labor statistics reached 1.2 million; however, the plans implemented by the MoLSAMD reduced the number of children engaged in sweatshop works.
According to Ahmazai, child laborers and unemployed children who were engaged in forced labor or sweatshop works, have been collected from all over the country and have been transferred to orphanages.
Spokesperson of MoLSAMD said the ministry has launched a new survey to determine the number of child laborers.
According to the Human Trafficking law, any work that is harmful to the health, education, intellectual, physical, and moral development of children is considered forced labor and is a crime.
Based on this, the children’s employment in the brickwork factories is strictly illegal.
ENDS