Child labour a serious problem in Italy

11 giugno 2015

2 min di lettura

(AGI) Rome, June 11 - At least 168 million children andteenagers worldwide are forced to work, including 85 millionwho do very risky jobs. Agriculture employs the most, with 98million, but children and teenagers also work at home, in themines or factories, often in conditions of extreme danger andexploitation. Sub-Saharan Africa is the area with the highestincidence of child labour. However, there is also childlabour in Italy, involving at least 340,000 children under 16,of who 28,000 are involved in activities very dangerous totheir safety, health and at the limits of exploitation. This,says Save The Children and the International LabourOrganisation, in the run up to World Day Against Child Labouron Friday, is why "it is urgent to adopt a national plan onchild labour and the fight against and prevention of theexploitation of the labour of children and teenagers in ourcountry". According to Save the Children's "Game Over"research, 7 percent of children in the seven to 15 age groupyears in Italy are involved in child labour. More than two inthree of these (between 14 and 15 years-old) are male and about7 percent are foreign. Eleven percent of teenagers who work -approximately 28,000 - are involved in the worst forms of childlabour, working nights or ongoingly, with the real risk ofcompromising their education and not even minimum space for funand games or the necessary rest. The biggest proportion of them(44.9 percent) work in family activities, while for thoseworking outside the family circle, the main areas are cateringwith 43 percent, crafts at 20 percent and work in the fieldswith 20 percent. . .