~ Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui. ~
The Vietnam News

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Vietnam children victimized by globalization, says group

Children in Vietnam are becoming more vulnerable to exploitation, trafficking, prostitution and the drug trade as external influences on the communist nation rise, the International Labour Organization (ILO) said yesterday.

Yasuyuki Norbera, the ILO's Asia-Pacific regional director, said that while Vietnam has done better than many of its neighbours in reducing child labour, its transition to a market economy has thrown up new challenges. "The increasing openness of the country to external economic and social influences has raised the spectre of new forms and patterns of vulnerability for Vietnam's children," he said. Norbera also blamed their vulnerability on the rise in internal migration and the growing numbers of displaced families living on the fringes of cities, often necessitating the entire family, including children, working to survive.

"They can now be found in informal work arrangements that are arduous, poorly paid, unsupervised and unregulated. They are also more vulnerable to trafficking, prostitution, and the sale and use of drugs," he said. His comments were made at the launch of a 30-month US-funded project aimed at preventing and halting child labour in Vietnam in partnership with the government. "The project aims to strengthen the capacity of government, mass organizations and civil society in addressing the problems of the worst forms of child labour through prevention, protection and the removal of children from dangerous work and their rehabilitation," he said. Government figures show that the number of child workers between the ages of 6 and 17 declined from 8.2 million in 1992 to 6.3 million in 1998 out of Vietnam's 80 million population.

Robert Porter, deputy head of the US embassy in Vietnam, praised the government's efforts over the past decade to reduce child labour but said much still remains to be done. "These children work long hours, sometimes away from home under exploitative, socially unjust or hazardous conditions with little or no pay, and are deprived of their right to health, education and future development." Vietnam begun 'doi moi', or its shift from a centrally-planned to a market economy, in 1986. It ratified the ILO's convention on Prohibition and Immediate Action on the Worst Forms of Child Labour in November 2000.

Agence France Presse - February 19, 2003.