Debt traps former Afghan refugees in poor work conditions-ILO
Wed, 8 Feb 2012 01:36 GMT
Abdullah, who lost his father after a U.S. night raid, works in a brick kiln in Jalalabad August 20, 2011. For some, the war has spelt not just uncertainty, but catastrophe.REUTERS/Ahmad Masood
NEW DELHI, Feb 8 (AlertNet) - Thousands of former refugee children and adults working in brick kilns in Afghanistan need immediate humanitarian aid and long-term development strategies to lift them out of a generational cycle of debt, poverty and dependency, according to a new report by the International Labour Organization (ILO).
More than 98 percent of 2,000 brick-kiln workers polled in Afghanistan said they became involved in the hazardous industry while living as refugees or migrants across the border in Pakistan where their experiences shaped their livelihood strategy, according to the United Nations (U.N.) agency report titled "Buried in Bricks".
Much of the work shaping bricks is done while crouching outdoors in the sun, heat and blowing dust. Labourers are paid by a system of advances on future wage payments, which ensures they will be bonded in debt, the report said.
"They are trapped in a debt cycle that leads them to use child labour as a substitute for adult work,” the report said.
“This labour pattern contains elements of coercion as none of the households can live or seek employment outside of the kilns (and) it is expected of them to put their children to work."
The survey found that more than half of workers in the brick kilns are children -- the majority under the age of 14.
Children are paid the same piece rate as adults for their work, according to the report, and are forced into the trade due to generational transfer of debt acquired by their parents to cover costs of such basic necessities as medical expenses, weddings and funerals.
Families are forced to take repeated loans, often paying for a winter’s food with a loan they must spend an entire season paying back.
Over the past 30 years, millions of Afghans have been forced to flee violence in the troubled south Asian nation, mostly to Pakistan.
Afghan recruiters offer to pay for one-way travel costs back to Afghanistan from Pakistan, the report said.
“With large families to feed, limited skills and almost no access to credit, households returning to Afghanistan turned to brick kilns again because they are one of the few places where they can get jobs and receive advances as well as in-kind payments such as shelter and water,” the report said.
“It is extremely difficult for a bonded labourer to leave the vicious cycle of debt as the wages paid are too low to allow the advance to be fully paid off by the end of the season.”
More than 98 percent of 2,000 brick-kiln workers polled in Afghanistan said they became involved in the hazardous industry while living as refugees or migrants across the border in Pakistan where their experiences shaped their livelihood strategy, according to the United Nations (U.N.) agency report titled "Buried in Bricks".
Much of the work shaping bricks is done while crouching outdoors in the sun, heat and blowing dust. Labourers are paid by a system of advances on future wage payments, which ensures they will be bonded in debt, the report said.
"They are trapped in a debt cycle that leads them to use child labour as a substitute for adult work,” the report said.
“This labour pattern contains elements of coercion as none of the households can live or seek employment outside of the kilns (and) it is expected of them to put their children to work."
The survey found that more than half of workers in the brick kilns are children -- the majority under the age of 14.
Children are paid the same piece rate as adults for their work, according to the report, and are forced into the trade due to generational transfer of debt acquired by their parents to cover costs of such basic necessities as medical expenses, weddings and funerals.
Families are forced to take repeated loans, often paying for a winter’s food with a loan they must spend an entire season paying back.
Over the past 30 years, millions of Afghans have been forced to flee violence in the troubled south Asian nation, mostly to Pakistan.
Afghan recruiters offer to pay for one-way travel costs back to Afghanistan from Pakistan, the report said.
“With large families to feed, limited skills and almost no access to credit, households returning to Afghanistan turned to brick kilns again because they are one of the few places where they can get jobs and receive advances as well as in-kind payments such as shelter and water,” the report said.
“It is extremely difficult for a bonded labourer to leave the vicious cycle of debt as the wages paid are too low to allow the advance to be fully paid off by the end of the season.”
Bonded labour in brick kilns is one of the most widespread forms of hazardous labour in Afghanistan where there are few job opportunities, according to the report, which is in part intended to serve as a baseline for designing interventions to eliminate forced labour and the worst forms of child labour in Afghanistan.
(Editing by Julie Mollins)
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