Child Labour Alarming In Cameroon

By Bongben Leocadia

Alice Ouedraogo, the Sub-regional Director of the International labour Organisation, ILO, has described the situation of child labour in Cameroon as alarming. She made the comment at a press conference that held at the Yaounde Djeuga Palace recently.

Ouedraogo expressed regret that no quantitative study has been conducted in Cameroon due to the lack of funds hence, figures are not available. However, she stated that there are children whose labour is being exploited in agriculture, businesses, prostitution and as domestic servants.

She added that ILO, through the West Africa Cocoa/Commercial Agricultural Project, WACAP, withdrew and reinserted 300 children from cocoa farming in the Centre Province, 250 in the Northwest, 259 in the Southwest, demonstrating that child labour is alarming.

Ouedraogo also disclosed that Cameroon is not just a transit zone, but also traffics in children and is a receptor of child labour.She said the promulgation of a law on child labour in Cameroon provides a base to sanction perpetrators of such acts and urged the public to denounce them for justice to take its course.

Yolande Fouda Manga, ILO National Project Coordinator of the International Programme for the Abolition of Child Labour, IPEC, and Sub-Regional Project, added her voice to distinguish between educative and exploitative work, for children between 0-18 years.

Other preoccupations centred on occupational health hazards, and how employees could be held accountable and the issue of temporary workers who work for long without being integrated, to which the ILO officials said their major role is to provide technical assistance at the request of government.

The focus of the encounter was on the World Day for Safety and Health at Work that was commemorated on Friday April 28, and the launch of the World Report on Child Labour by the Prime Minister on May 5.

Comments

[rexon]

This is a product of the very corrupt practices of la republique du camerouns government on the southern cameroons and their own citizens.

In that failed republic, there is no minimum wage, in other industries like Delmonte, henchmen of the regime are using every opportunity to enslave the workers. They pay them less than 10 percent of what they are actually supposed to earn through a fake cameroonian registered company callled CAMFRUIT, workers in delmonte and other agricultural companies like CDC, TOLE TEA are being subjected to unberable working conditions, while henchmen of the regime are benefitting financially, etc.

Child labour is very common in la republique du cameroun. Another ill of that society is the common practice of teachers preying young girls (sex in return for marts), employers preying their secretaries, the rich class contaminating innocent girls, etc. That failed republic has all the trademark of a very disastrous state. Police, gerndarmes and soldiers rape young girls and walk free.

In fact, child labour is just one of the crimes we need to try the present leaders who have colonised the southern cameroons for when we get our independence. The whole regime is being governed by paedophile who need to be locked up. The southern cameroons shall be free and we shall clean our territory from all this mess instituted by la republique du cameroun. It is a culture of their criminal masters france and that evil culture will be wiped out from the southern cameroons.

[Elina-baby]

Where are we heading to?, If a young child can be in this situation, please let's pray to the Almighty God to do something to save our Father's land.

Coconuts, g-nuts na wa oh

[chris njie]

Rexon, who do u speak for?

[rexon]

chris Njie,

I speak for myself.

Bye.

[Henry Ale]

Thank u rexon for speaking for us and on our behalf.

[Pable]

Excellent write-up Rexon. Keep up, we love your words of wisdom and respect you higly for that. I know some detractors will always want to criticise you but do keep up.

[Pable]

Excellent write-up Rexon. Keep up, we love your words of wisdom and respect you higly for that. I know some detractors will always want to criticise you but do keep up.

[Tumnde]

Fellow country men and women. i am an Anglo-Bami who was born and educated in the south west province. I believe child labour has nothing to do with being Anglophone or Francophone. This has to do with the economic and social situation of a society. Cameroon is not the first place to have experienced child labour. Germany, France etc did experience child labour. If we have to solve this problem, we have to observe our own homes, relatives and friends. Do any of your relatives exploit a child in any form, be it in household or trade? This exploitation is seen in every status in life. The economic crisis is the cause of all this. A child can assist her parents in the household, there is no problem in that. Laws should be made on this issues, defining what and how long a child can assist its parents (considering the age of the child). It is not only la Republic that has failed. Who is la Republique in the first place? All of us are part of la Republique (me, you and our parents). If Cameroon is bad today, it is the work of our parents. To be in a good system and later let it go bad, while sitting and watching means all of us are responsible for it being what it is today. It is not Paul Biya or Fru Ndi who will reform Cameroon, the people of Cameroon must want that change and fight for it. I do not agree Cameroon is a failed state as such, our parents have failed. If your father sells a house to send you to Europe or America, this does not necessarily mean that he loves you. He simply transfers responsibility to you because he knows well that he has failed as part of a system. Now your juniors nolonger look up to him for their needs but to you. You can neither concentrate on your studies whereever you are, because you have to carry forward responsibilities. We have to ponder for solutions to these problems together considering their source carefully not to politicise it as such. Cameroon is a beautiful country, we just have to initiate and do what we can do best to help ourselves rather than staying on same critics day after day.