BEIRUT: A new study found that over 1,500 children in Lebanon are involved in street-based child labor, but the problem is manageable, the deputy regional director of the International Labor Organization said Monday. The report also found that some 73 percent of those 1,500 children are from Syria. Lebanon hosts more than 1 million Syrian refugees – half of them children – who fled their country’s ongoing civil war.
“If we only wanted to attack the problem of street-based child labor that would be relatively manageable because it’s a small number,” ILO’s Deputy Regional Director Frank Hagemann told The Daily Star.
His comments came during the launch of a new study titled “Children Living and Working on the Streets in Lebanon: Profile and Magnitude.” It was completed in a partnership between the ILO, the United Nations Children Fund and Save the Children International, at the request of the Labor Ministry, as part of a wider examination into the problem of street children in Lebanon.
The problem in Lebanon is relatively small when compared to massive urban hubs such as Rio de Janeiro and Lagos, Hagemann said.
“We know what has worked there and the same could work here,” he added.
Hagemann said that the problem of street-based children is only a small percentage of the larger child-labor problem in Lebanon.
He estimated that there were 200,000 to 300,000 children engaged in labor in Lebanon, in fields such as agriculture and construction.
The report looked specifically at the issue of street-based child labor across 18 districts in Lebanon. It found that the average street child makes less than $12 per day, works six days a week, and is between the ages of 10 and 14.
Half of the children were found in Beirut, with Hamra, Al-Tariq al-Jadideh and Mathaf having the highest concentration of all the places surveyed. On the other hand, Sidon had the lowest number of street children.
According to the report, 80 percent of street-based child laborers are either beggars or street vendors. Some of the remaining are involved in illicit activities such as prostitution.
In 2013, the Labor Ministry launched Lebanon’s National Action Plan for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor by 2016 to tackle the problem.
Labor Minister Sejaan Azzi was present at the launch of the report. During his speech he detailed that a committee of all relevant Cabinet members had been formed – with the help of Prime Minister Tammam Salam – to address the issue of child labor, as well as human trafficking.
“Religious extremism is not the only reason behind increasing terrorism, but poverty, tragedy and frustration with society fuel negative feelings among children which could later develop into ideological strays and sometimes into terrorist action,” Azzi said. “Combating terrorism starts with taking care of children.”
The labor minister recommended setting up institutions that specialize in housing street children and providing them with psychologists, social workers and physicians.
The report stressed the importance of educating children to alleviate the problem of child labor. Forty-two percent of the children in the survey were found to be completely illiterate and 40 percent had never attended school at all.
When asked what they would like to be doing, most children’s first choice was to attend school, the report said. Many have very high aspirations: The most sought-after professions were ones that required a degree, such as engineering, medicine and accounting, the report added.
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