ILO/IPEC Thailand and Provincial Government of Samut Sakhon work together on child labour prevention

 
The ILO/IPEC Thailand and the Provincial Government of Samut Sakhon organized jointly a meeting on migrant children and their needs on 15 February 2013 in Samut Sakhon.

The meeting was a joint undertaking between ILO/IPEC and the Provincial Office of Labour Protection and Welfare and was attended by 65 participants from various Provincial Government offices, businesses, workers organizations and civil society.

Discussions focused on the situation of child dependents of migrant workers, and in particular on how to provide them with basic services such as education and health. In addition, the workshop also served as a platform to promote multi-stakeholders participation in addressing gaps in social protection services to migrant children and to prevent them from entering child labour. How to improve education services to migrant children, what are the roles of the public and private sectors and how could effective Child Labour Monitoring (CLM) processes be developed in the province were evoked.

The province of Samut Sakhon is in the process of developing a policy to prevent child labour and promote well-being of migrant and Thai children through provision of services in particular to child dependents of migrant workers. Age-appropriate services are being considered through following means:

• from 0 to 5 years old: workplace-based or community-based day care centers;
• from 6 to 14 years old: educational services by public schools or learning centers; and
• from 15 to 18 years old: employment services in accordance with the labour law.

With regard to the workplace-based day care services, it was concluded that such facilities would improve the morale and loyalty of workers, enhance family ties, promote breast feeding, as well as improve labour relations between employers and workers and improve productivity. Development of such services could be organized between private, public and civil society organizations.

It was discussed that education services should be scaled up in order to prevent child labour among young child migrants. It was agreed that specific targets for enrolment of migrant children in the educational year 2013 between 1,000 to 2,000 children should be considered after a review of the current situation assisted by ILO/IPEC would be concluded in the coming months. It was also proposed that “Education for Migrant Children” should be considered as a special provincial agenda, and that funding from the private sector should be mobilized for the costs of migrant teaching assistants/migrant teachers.

With regard to combatting the use of child labour, the workshop endorsed establishing a Child Labour Monitoring system. The Bang Ya Prak sub-district, which houses a highest numbers of seafood primary processing units in Samut Sakhon, was selected to be a pilot area for the CLM.

The Provincial Operational Center (POC) on Providing Assistance to Women and Child Workers was asked to lead these efforts and integrate together the education agenda, anti-child labour campaigns at the enterprise level, as well as the promotion of workplace-based day care centers under a common action plan for the Province.