Child Laborers at Risk in Ecuador
Click Here to Add CommentSubject: Child Laborers at Risk in Ecuador
Date: Fri, 26 Apr 2002 12:23:57 -4000
From: Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization: Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)
To: Paul Helliker <phelliker@cdpr.ca.gov>
Director, State of
California, Department of Pesticide Regulation
cc: Christine Whitman whitman.christine@epa.gov
25 Apr 2002 04:30 UTC
VOA News Americas
Child Laborers at Risk in
Ecuador
A U.S.-based human rights organization says children as young as eight-years-old face hazardous conditions while working on banana plantations in Ecuador.
A report by Human Right Watch says child laborers work 12 hour days using sharp knives and hauling heavy bundles of bananas. Less less than 40 percent of the children remain in school past the age of 14. The report says the child workers are exposed to toxic pesticides, drink unsanitary water, and some are sexually harassed by adult supervisors.
The New York-based group says researchers interviewed 45 child laborers during a three-week fact-finding mission to Ecuador.
The South American* country is one of the world's largest exporters of bananas.
The report also says adults working on the plantations in Ecuador face losing their jobs if they fight for better working conditions.
Human
Rights Watch criticized large multi-national food companies such as Dole, Del
Monte and Chiquita that buy the bananas for failing to use their financial
influence to insist that suppliers respect
worker rights.
*corrected 4/25/02
Some information for this report provided by AP.
Human
Right Watch
350 Fifth Avenue, 34th floor
New York, NY 10118-3299 USA
Tel: 1-(212) 290-4700,
Fax: 1-(212) 736-1300
hrwnyc@hrw.org
http://www.hrw.org
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