"Cambodian children suffering from the worst forms child labor"

Cambodia is one of the poorest countries today and because of this, Cambodia has over 1.5 million children in labor. Of these 1.5 million, about 250,000 are working under extreme conditions including mines, drug factories, brick factories etc. A new campaign announced August 18 themed "I protect children, do you?" attempts to fight the most harmful types of child labor. This is a two year program based on raising awareness of these dangerous forms of child labor in hopes that something will be done about it. On August 24th a march was held in Sihanoukville under another campaign. This march hoped to raise the public's awareness of the trafficking and sexual exploitation that goes along with child labor. Many children are forced into work by the debt of their parents who cannot leave their own jobs to work off their debt. In Cambodia, by law a child can work for wages at 15 but can be hired as early as 12 to do "light" work. The problem here is that these laws are not followed or enforced creating the problem that we see today.

This article tells the story of a nation so impoverished that children must work to live which only continues the chain of poverty for these children receive little to no education therefore they have no way of moving up in the world. What particularly angered me about the stories in this article was the fact that most of these children were not working to feed themselves or their families but to pay the debt of their parents. In some cases, the parents even sold their child in exchange for land or goods. No matter what the culture you live in, how can you enslave your own child for a little something extra? Another thing that was interesting to me is that they have laws preventing this type of work. I always thought that these countries allowed underage work for wages but Cambodia has the laws to prevent it and either no means of enfocing them or worse they look the other way. In my sinical opinion, it is the latter. These governments are probably receiving a cut of the earnings in return for turning their cheeck on the issue but as it gains publicity through these organizations, they will not be able to do so much longer.
http://www.licadho.org/articles/20070829/63/