Government,
World Bank, Donors Should Address Child Labor in Mines
Children
as young as eight-years-old are working in Tanzanian small-scale gold mines,
with grave risks to their health and even their lives, Human Rights Watch said
in a report released recently.
The
Tanzanian government should curb child labor in small-scale mining, including
at informal, unlicensed mines, and the World Bank and donor countries should
support these efforts.
The
96-page report, “Toxic Toil: Child Labor and Mercury Exposure in Tanzania’s
Small-Scale Gold Mines,” describes how thousands of children work in licensed
and unlicensed small-scale gold mines in Tanzania, Africa’s fourth-largest gold
producer.
They dig
and drill in deep, unstable pits, work underground for shifts of up to 24
hours, and transport and crush heavy bags of gold ore.
The
report said that children risk injury from pit collapses and accidents with
tools, as well as long-term health damage from exposure to mercury, breathing
dust, and carrying heavy loads. A 17-year-old boy who survived a pit accident
told Human Rights Watch, “I thought I was dead, I was so frightened.”
“Tanzanian
boys and girls are lured to the gold mines in the hopes of a better life, but
find themselves stuck in a dead-end cycle of danger and despair,” said Janine
Morna, children’s rights research fellow at Human Rights Watch. “Tanzania and
donors need to get these children out of the mines and into school or
vocational training.”
Many
children who work in mining are orphans or other vulnerable children who lack
basic necessities and support.
Human
Rights Watch also found that girls on and around mining sites face sexual
harassment, including pressure to engage in sex work. Some girls become victims
of commercial sexual exploitation and risk contracting HIV or other sexually
transmitted infections.
Human
Rights Watch visited 11 mining sites in Geita, Shinyanga, and Mbeya regions,
and interviewed more than 200 people, including 61 children working in
small-scale gold mining.
The
report explained further that the employment of children in dangerous mining
work is one of the worst forms of child labor under international agreements,
to which Tanzania is a party.
“On
paper, Tanzania has strong laws prohibiting child labor in mining, but the
government has done far too little to enforce them,” Morna said. “Labor
inspectors need to visit both licensed and unlicensed mines regularly, and
ensure employers face sanctions for using child labor.”
Child
laborers, as well as children living near mining sites, are at serious risk of
mercury poisoning. Mercury attacks the central nervous system and can cause
lifelong disability to children, whose developing bodies are more easily
affected by the heavy metal.
The
miners, including children, mix mercury with crushed ground ore and burn the
resulting gold-mercury amalgam to release the gold, exposing them to poisonous
mercury fumes. Even small children who are not working are often present during
this process, which is sometimes carried out in the home.
Most
adult and child miners are unaware of these health risks. Health workers lack
training and facilities and are not equipped to diagnose or treat mercury
poisoning. Existing laws and initiatives on mercury have largely failed to
reduce mercury use.
Tanzania
has helped craft a new global treaty to reduce mercury exposure worldwide,
which more than 140 governments agreed upon in January 2013.
The
Minamata Convention on Mercury, named for the site in Japan of a mercury
poisoning disaster half a century ago, will be adopted in October near
Minamata.
“Tanzania
helped bring about the Minamata Convention on Mercury,” Morna said. “Now, to
protect the future of its own people and of its own growing mining industry, it
needs to take the lead to protect its children – by monitoring, testing, and
treating them for mercury exposure and getting them out of the mines.”
Working
in the mines interferes with children’s education. Children working in mining
sometimes skip classes or drop out of school altogether.
Teachers
told Human Rights Watch that school attendance and performance decreased when a
gold mine opened nearby. In addition, many adolescents seek full-time
employment, including in mining, because they lack access to secondary school
or vocational training.
A
15-year-old boy in the Geita district summed up the impact of mining on his
life: “It is difficult to combine mining and school. I don’t get time to go
through tutoring [which takes place on the weekends]. I wonder about the mine,
it distracts me…. One day … I fell sick [after mining and missed classes]. I
had pain all over my body.”
The
Tanzanian government should expand access to secondary school and vocational
training and improve child protection, Human Rights Watch said.
The
government and donors should provide financial and political backing for the
new action plan on the most vulnerable children and include orphans from mining
areas in the Tanzania Social Action Fund’s program of grants and conditional
cash transfers to vulnerable populations.
The
World Bank and other donors to the mining sector should also support steps to
end child labor in mining and reduce the exposure of children and adults to
mercury, Human Rights Watch said.
For example,
they should help children transition from work in unlicensed mines to
schooling, and ensure that newly licensed mines do not use child labor. A
current USD55 million World Bank project to support the mining sector does not
directly address child labor.
The gold
industry has a responsibility to ensure it does not benefit directly or
indirectly from unlawful child labor, Human Rights Watch said. Yet most gold
traders Human Rights Watch interviewed in Tanzania had no procedures to keep
gold mined by children out of their supply chains.
Small
traders typically purchase gold directly at the mines or in mining towns and
then sell it to larger traders in Tanzania. Sometimes the gold passes through
several intermediaries before reaching the traders who export the gold.
According to the Tanzanian government, small-scale miners produced about 1.6
tons of gold in 2012 – worth about USD85 million.
The top
destination for gold from Tanzanian small-scale mines is the United Arab
Emirates (UAE). Gold is also exported to Switzerland, South Africa, China, and
the United Kingdom.
“Whether
small or large, Tanzanian or global, businesses should avoid becoming entangled
with unlawful child labor in their supply chain,” Morna said. “As those with
the buying power, gold traders have leverage over their suppliers. They should
use it to protect children and to protect consumers from buying gold tainted by
child labor.”
Ends.
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