Working refugee children call for an end to child labour in Lebanon

A child on stage at the performance in Lebanon's Bekaa region to mark World Day against child labour
© Jacob Carter/ILO ZAHLE, LEBANON (ILO News)— Refugee children from across Lebanon took to the stage on Tuesday (June 16) to call for an end to child labour in Lebanon. The theatrical performance marked the World Day Against Child Labour and was held in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, home to thousands of child refugees, many of whom are engaged in the worst form of child labour such as street work and hazardous agricultural labour.

More than 60 working refugee children, joined by Lebanese children, employed various musical, theatrical and artistic elements to act out segments on their experiences as child labourers and the urgent need for reforms to tackle child labour in Lebanon. Hundreds of spectators attended the event including members of the National Steering Committee to Combat Child Labour, representatives from the ILO and other international agencies as well as the media, government officials and the general public. Other working children and children at risk were also in attendance.

“The courage, confidence and eloquence these children showed today should act as a wake up call for all of us who believe the place for children in Lebanon is in its classrooms and playgrounds rather than it streets, fields and factories,” said Frank Hagemann, Acting Regional Director of the ILO Regional Office for Arab States.

For several months, the Beyond Association has been working with the ILO and the Lebanese Ministry of Labour to train working refugee children to express their plight through theatre using the ILO’s Supporting Children's Rights through Education, the Arts and the Media - SCREAM programme. With a focus on child labour, the SCREAM programme aims to promote awareness about children’s rights so that they in turn can speak out and mobilise their communities to act.

“The variety of experiences shared with by working children today is a testament to the fact that the response to child labour in Lebanon must be holistic and fall in line with the National Action Plan to Eliminate the Worst Forms of Child Labour in Lebanon by 2016,” said Hagemann. “Lebanon already possesses much of the technical capacity and evidence base needed to take action and make child labour in its worst forms a thing of the past. What’s left to do now is transform that capacity into action.”

In 2013, Lebanon adopted the National Action Plan to Eliminate the Worst Forms of Child Labour in Lebanon by 2016 (NAP). In addition, the ILO has also recently released the first study of its kind to assess the scope and characteristics of children living and working in the streets of Lebanon. The ILO’s International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour has also been active in Lebanon since it signed and agreement in 2000 to work with the Government of Lebanon to combat child labour.

“In order to reverse the effects the Syrian refugee crisis has had on refugees and host community residents that have resorted to child labour because of economic destitution, hard choices will have to be made at all levels of government, business and civil society,” said Hagemann. “In practice, that means cracking down on traffickers and employers of children, providing households with alternatives to child labour, as well as ensuring that all children—regardless of nationality—have access to education.”