50,000 children across the country work to keep their families alive! ALO 116 Albania reports 120 cases only during the last year
Tirana, 12 June 2018 – The National Child Rights Network “Act for Children”, on the International Day Against Labour, expresses its concern over the existing phenomenon of exploitation of children for labour in our country.
According to CRCA and INSTAT data, about 50,000 children work every day across Albania! The latest report by Save the Children states that 5.1 percent of children are involved in heavy work. Over 2500 children are in street situation. These figures are an alarm bell for the entire Albanian society, but in particular for our institutions, which must intervene immediately to change this reality.
ALO 116-111: The Albanian National Child Helpline, reported 120 new denounced cases of child labour and exploitation during last year. Most of these cases are related to children used for begging in major urban areas of the country.
The Albanian National Child Rights Network: ACT FOR CHILDREN! calls publicly today that:
- The Albanian Parliament shall approve the legal amendments to the Criminal Code of Albania, proposed by our network that enable the protection of children from all forms of exploitation and abuse;
- The Government of Albania shall adopt as soon as possible the National Action Plan for the Elimination of Child Labour and Exploitation;
- The Ministry of Health and Social Work, the Ministry of Education and all 61 municipalities throughout the country, in their 2019 budget, should fund the national and community services of non-governmental organisations as the only providers of such services for children. They should ensure that all children and young people that due to their exploitation, have dropped out of school, can attend education, fulfilling their right to education;
- We extend an invitation to the “Friends of Children” Parliamentary Group to organize an open hearing session to hold accountable every ministry for the lack of measures and actions they should have taken to eliminate child labour and exploitation in Albania.
June 12 marks the World Day Against Child Labour. The International Labour Organization (ILO) announced this day for the first time in 2002 as a way of highlighting the situation of children who work. In the world, over 215 million boys and girls work, while 115 million are exposed to the worst forms of child labour.