[13/March/2010]
SANA'A, March 13 (Saba) – About 57 banned jobs are practiced by Yemen children , who are less than 18 years old ,Undersecretary of Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor Abdu al-Hakimi revealed on Saturday.

Opening a workshop on children labor issues in Yemen organized by the Unit of Combating Child Labor at the ministry in cooperation with the International Labor Organization (ILO), al-Hakimi said that a list issued by the ministerial decree No. (56) for 2004 has identified the prohibited jobs for children based on the Conventions No.182 and No.138 issued by the ILO on banning the worst forms of child labor and on determining the working-age.

Al-Hakimi urged 45 participants in the workshop, who represented a number of relevant governmental agencies and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), to coordinate efforts to advocate issues of child labor and to exchange experiences among them in this regard.

He considered poverty is the main reason that drives a lot of Yemeni families to drag their children to work early, taking them away from education as well as their work in hazardous occupations to their lives.

For his part, the Coordinator of the ILO in Yemen, Raydan al-Saqqaf said: " Since 2000, the organization has begun working in the field of combating child labor in Yemen to help the concerned parties to improve the situation of children" .. He pointed out that 52 percent of Yemen's populations are children.

Al-Saqqaf stressed the need to take children away from the prohibited occupations and to obligate the employers to implement the regulations issued by the Ministry of Social Affair and Labor, which identified those occupations.

Moreover, al-Saqqaf affirmed the importance of identifying mechanisms for advocating child labor issues through the topics of the workshop represented in the national legislations regulating the children labor and their harmonization with the international conventions.

He noted to the role of CSOs in countering the phenomenon, and the national strategy and the role of government in reducing this phenomenon and the social care services provided for the working children.

BA
Saba