1. Child Labour
13th-17th June 2016
Children and young people have the right to be protected from economic exploitation, and from work that would harm them - UNCRC article 32

2. John King worked in the mines in Scotland, a long time ago
John King worked in the mines in Scotland, a long time ago. In 1842, when he was 12-years-old, he said: “I have been four years in the Sheriff-hall and Somerside pits … I work all the time that I am below and get kale or porridge afterwards. The work takes away the desire for food … I go down at three in the morning, but leave home at two, and come up about four and six in the day. I was crushed by a piece of coal some two or three years ago and laid idle two months … I have been sometimes belted, as most boys are when they are indisposed to work; was taught to read … and could do a little at the writing.”
Can you spot where John has not been given his rights?
- the youngest age a child can work is 13
Children cannot work before 7am or during school hours
Children cannot work in industrial locations

3. Child Labour In the UK Today
A report conducted in 2010 found that too little was being done to check if the rules were actually being followed. So children might be working too many hours, for example.
In 2015, it was estimated that there were 3,000 children from Vietnam alone in forced labour in the UK. They are made to work in cannabis factories, nail bars, garment factories, brothels, and as domestic servants.

4. Hien was taken from his village at the age of five by someone who claimed to be his uncle. As an orphan, he had no option but to do as he was told. He spent the next three years trapped in domestic servitude in London, cooking and cleaning for groups of Vietnamese people. He was never allowed out of the house and was told that if he tried to escape, the police would arrest him and take him to prison.
He became homeless after his “uncle” abandoned him. He was eventually picked up by a Vietnamese couple, who offered him a place to stay but then forced him to work in cannabis farms in flats in first Manchester and then Scotland.
He looked after the plants, using pesticides that made him ill, and only left the flat when he helped transport the leaves to be dried elsewhere. He was locked in, threatened, beaten and completely isolated from the outside world.
“I was never paid any money for working there,” he says. “I did not stay there for money but because I was afraid and I hoped the whole thing would end soon.”
Can you spot where Hein has not been given his rights?
- the youngest age a child can work is 13
Children cannot work before 7am or during school hours
Children cannot be exposed to harmful chemicals
It’s a very long list…