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Child labour still there

Claims US Dept of Labour about Bangladesh's informal garment sector

REFAYET ULLAH MIRDHA
A US agency in its new survey Monday claimed the presence of child labour in the Bangladesh's informal garment sector, as it expanded its list of products worldwide it says were likely produced by child or forced labour.
The US Department of Labour said 11 goods made with child labour have been added to the sixth edition of its list.
The goods are: garments from Bangladesh; cotton and sugarcane from India; vanilla from Madagascar; fish from Kenya; fish from Yemen; alcoholic beverages, meat, textiles, and timber from Cambodia; and palm oil from Malaysia. The full list now includes 136 goods from 74 countries.
“There's a story behind each item on these lists - a child facing back-breaking labour without education or other opportunities for a better life or an adult trapped in a dismal job through deceit or threats," Labour Secretary Thomas E Perez said in a statement.
"These lists raise awareness about child and forced labour. Through collective efforts we can, and must, work together to end these cycles of exploitation."
Marcia Eugenia, head of the US Office of Child Labour, Forced Labour, and Human Trafficking, cited Bangladesh is of particular concern, according to the news agency AP. "The information that we have for Bangladesh is that the children that are likely working are working in informal garment production. Probably in unregistered production units, with small or temporary workshops rather than the big factories you normally associate with garment production in Bangladesh," Eugenia told reporters in a conference call.
U.S. officials say it's hard to know which products come from child and or forced labour and which do not.
But the labour ministry and industry insiders in Bangladesh rejected the US report.
"I got the report in my hand. I will strongly protest the claims in the US report as the ILO declared the garment sector of Bangladesh childlabour free in 1995," Mikail Shipar, labour secretary, told The Daily Star by phone.
"The US has released the report mainly to create imbalance in the garment sector and embarrass us," said Shipar. The US department made the survey by email and did not visit the factories, he said.
"If the US had asked us we could have arranged a visit for them to see the field level situation in factories."
Bangladesh labour laws permit
employment of children in any decent jobs having decent working hours between 14 and 18 olds, but not in any hazardous jobs in anyway.
"So, we cannot send any child below 18 years of old to the factories as it will be child labour. I will send the letter to the US protesting the claim as soon as possible," Shipar said.
Echoing the views of labour secretary, Syed Sultan Uddin Ahmmed, assistant executive director of Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies also said very often the US DoL prepares such reports although there is no existence of child labour in the garmentsector.
"So far, we know Bangladeshi garment sector is child labour free. The existence of child labour in the sector is not noticed by us," Ahmed said. "If there is any child labour, it is not at least in any hazardous work," he said.
Before declaring the garment sector of Bangladesh in 1995, the International Labour Organisation, UNICEF and Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), the garment makers' platform, signed a memorandum of understanding and eliminated the child labour in the sector.
Under the project they sent the
child workers to the schools under a project and declared the now $25 billion worth garment sector as child labour free in 1995, he added.
"I do not believe that there is child labour in the garment sector anymore. I will protest the survey," said BGMEA President Atiqul Islam.
The US DoL released the sixth edition of the "List of Goods Produced by Child Labour or Forced Labour," Monday. The Bureau of International Labour Affairs (ILAB) also published an initial determination to add carpets from India to its "List of Products Produced by Forced or Indentured Child Labour."