CHILDREN OF THE WORLD - Myanmar forced child labor

By Amariyah  |  Posted September 27, 2012 


Myanmar forced child labor Myanmar better known as Burma is resource-rich country; however the Burmese economy is one of the least developed in the world. It is so poor it has children in the work force of the military even prostitution. Burma is one of the leading countries of child labor in the world. Forced child labor in Myanmar is everything from factories to human trafficking. The police in Myanmar force children into the military by saying that if they do not have an ID they will either have to go to jail or work in the military. Children who are forced to work in the military usually are too young to even have ID’s and are usually walking home or just getting onto a bus. “Children are forced to serve as porters in areas, in which beatings and other mistreatment occur”, (Burma UN Service Office-New York & Human Rights Documentation Unit National Conviction Government of the Union of Burma). The Burma military has no care for its soldiers-child soldiers. On the website ibiblio.org it states “Children have been used as human minesweepers and human shields during military operations”, (Burma UN Service Office New York & Human Rights Documentation Unit National Conviction Government of the Union of Burma). This shows that the Burma military doesn’t have a lot of supplies for its soldiers and are careless of the child soldiers. Child soldiers have little to no contact with families, are underpaid, and are not given adequate food or medicine. Trainees die during their training period due to disease, malnourishment, and poor medical treatment. Burma press gangs are grabbing men and women aged between 14 and 15 across the country to work as front-line porters. The army is conscripting one porter for every soldier fighting the Karen National Union. People who are kidnapped are beaten on a regular basis. Karen refugees arriving in Thailand tell of raping and other atrocities by Burmese military had no care for the front-line porters because they were treated like animals. According to a 23-year old man who risked being shot to escape “They beat us like dogs and cats”, (Murdoch). This shows that the Burmese military had no care for the front-line porters because they were treated like animals. The international community has repeatedly condemned Burma’s military regime for employing a brutal system of forced labor. Responding to the pro-democracy movement inside Burma, numerous companies, governments and unions have cut ties with Burma. Myanmar will soon allow unions to be formed. The president Thein Sein signed the bill into law last week. The labor organization bill cancels a nearly 60-year old anti-labor union decree, the 1962 Trade Unions Act, which banned trade unions. Parts of the 2002 Winter Olympic torchbearer were made in Burma. The Norwegian Olympic team recently refused to wear clothing made in Burma. According to AASG’s David Moore “Every purchase of a made-in-Burma product supports this regime”, (PR Newswire). Moore’s point is that mostly all of Burma’s productivity comes from forced labor, and getting goods from Burma is giving them money, which makes them want to keep forcing people to do work. In the International Labor Organization view the system of forced labor in Burma is “a saga of untold misery and suffering”, (PR Newswire). The Organization believes that force labor in Burma keeps going on and on with nothing being done to stop it and people in the country are in misery and suffering. DC Director Jeremy Woodrum complicates matters further when he declares “Purchasing goods from Burma undermines the Olympic charters call for the preservation of “human dignity”, (PR Newswire). Woodrum implies that if the Olympic purchase goods from Burma then they are going against their own standard-“human dignity”. “Human dignity” seems to have no found place in Burma, as other places around the world. A young girl as just age 6 was sent to a brothel in Somali. An article on her story said that “Srey Pov’s family sold her to a brothel when she was 6 year old. She was unaware of sex but soon found out: A western pedophile purchased her virginity…the brothel tied her naked and spread-eagled on a bed so that he could rape her”, (New York Times, Nicholas). From this evidence the brothel will do anything to keep the prisoners from getting away. Srey Pov and so many other girls in Burma have the same sad story. Girls in Burma are sent to Thailand to supply their vast sex trade. Girls are often tricked into working at these jobs-brothels. Girls are sent to Vientiane, Laos; Phnom Penh, Cambodia; Beijing, China. Girls are forced to work at brothels but are under-paid or a lot of times not even paid at all. An important fact on the website seatletimes.newsource is “An amazing 98 percent said they wanted prostitution to exist as a profession, and 4.5 percent of the young women surveyed admitted they expected to end up as sex workers” (Win). Most of the people surveyed were from 12 to 14. “Recently, Thailand for the first time revealed the shocking spread of the AIDS virus. A Thai health ministry official estimated that at least 350,000 of his countrymen are HIV-positive, that 10,000 will die over the next 24 months and at least 3,000 babies were born with the virus among the 90,000 births over the last 12 months”(Win). A lot of people are dying because of the high sex industry in Thailand most come from Burma. A young girl fled to escape military government prostitution; she got away from them, however she instead was forced into prostitution. Medical authorities in Burma fear that AID’s will spread throughout the country by infected prostitutes who return home. There should be something done to stop these issues; even though there has been organizations and groups to stop this it still continues to be a widespread problem, not just in Burma but all over the world.