Child Labour Today

Summary

End Child Exploitation is a UNICEF UK campaign to raise awareness about the grim realities of child exploitation. This report, the third in the series, exposes the exploitation of children as workers. Here we explain the nature and scale of the problem and the growing international concern to eradicate the worst abuses. The report describes cases from around the world of children who start work instead of attending school, of those whose lives are endangered by their work, and of children who are treated as if they were items to be bought or sold, rather than as human beings.

It also looks at the exploitation of children at work in the United Kingdom. It reports on the experiences of professionals involved in the field, and the opinions of British children themselves, gathered in a unique survey. The report also reveals how foreign national children are brought into the UK specifically to be exploited as workers, in homes as well as restaurants, factories and farms. It looks at the serious inadequacies of the protection currently available, particularly for children brought to the UK especially to be exploited, and recommends action to be taken.
This report also describes some of UNICEF’s current initiatives to advocate for the rights of the world’s 350 million child and youth workers and to protect them against abuse at work, as well as pinpointing the action needed to end the economic exploitation of children.