Our grocery chains selling shrimp cleaned by slaves....

[Lynn49]

Regarding the original topic...

10 Child Labor Facts

1. Australia annually imports $16 million worth of tobacco produced by child labor, including tobacco produced in the U.S. Tobacco cultivation is extremely labor intensive and children are often subjected to serious health risks including nicotine poisoning. Most cigarette smokers in Australia are unaware of the origins of the tobacco they consume.
2. According to the ILO, 168 million children worldwide are engaged in child labor as of 2013.
3. Of these 168 million children, 85 million are engaged in what the ILO deems “hazardous work.”
4. According to a study conducted by the ILO in 2004, the benefits of eradicating child labor would “outweigh costs by nearly six to one.”
5. The sub-Saharan African region has the second highest number of child laborers in the world; about 59 million in 2012. According to the Pew Research Center, children aged five to 17, or 21.4 percent, are involved in child labor while 10.4 percent are engaged in hazardous work.
6. Agriculture accounts for 60 percent of child labor according to the ILO.
7. Only one out of five children involved in child labor is paid for his or her work.
8. The majority of children in child labor perform unpaid family work.
9. The 10 countries that Maplecroft listed as the worst countries for child labor in 2012 included Pakistan, Afghanistan, North Korea and Myanmar. The other six countries were all in Africa: Sudan, DR Congo, Somalia, Ethiopia, Burundi and Zimbabwe.
10. About 60 percent of children in Ethiopia are engaged in some form of child labor. Many of these children work in the mining industry; an industry that poses some of the biggest dangers for child laborers.

Many parents in impoverished countries push their children to work out of necessity. Unable to sustain their families on their own income, the parents feel that they have no choice but to push their children into child labor.
One of the best ways to combat child labor is to provide fair wages and safe working conditions for parents so that they can provide for their families without being forced to depend on their children. To fight against child labor is to fight against global poverty.
– Matt Berg
http://borgenproject.org/10-child-labor-facts/

Migrant workers, at least, are PAID for their work! They have a choice to work or not.
CHILDREN who are involved in CHILD LABOUR? The MAJORITY to NOT get paid! THAT is CHILD SLAVE LABOUR!

[Lynn49]

The Modern
West African Slave Trade

Recently, we have seen the revival of the once thriving slave trade routes across West Africa, after a lapse of 25 years. Slavers have reappeared following the old slave trade routes, except that trucks, jeeps and modern four-wheel drive vehicles and, on occasions, aircraft, have replaced the camels. The slavers often carry mobile telephones.
Some things, however, have not changed. Cunning, deceit, the use of drugs to subdue the children and the whip still remain part of the essential equipment of the professional slaver.
The trade involves most states in sub-Saharan West Africa.
The children are kidnapped or purchased for $20 - $70 each by slavers in poorer states, such as Benin and Togo, and sold into slavery in sex dens or as unpaid domestic servants for $350.00 each in wealthier oil-rich states, such as Nigeria and Gabon.
These children are bought and sold as slaves. They are denied an education, the chance to play or to use toys like other children, and the right to a future. Their lives are at the mercy of their masters, and suicide is often the only escape.
The material in this report is based on a Mission to West Africa by the Society's Secretary-General, supplemented by material from Cleophas Mally of WAO-Afrique.

http://www.anti-slaverysociety.addr.com/toc.htm

[AddyB]

You are absolutely right, currently the UK uses mainly Eastern European EU workers to pick our fruit & veg but with Brexit I am sure there are engineers currently working on machines to make picking easier. I know there is already one for picking cauliflowers, cabbages, brussel sprouts and asparagus. When my FIL ran a farm his workers were local and the potato harvesters were Romany gypsies, they were great fun and appeared annually in time for harvest and then moved on. I imagine the same will occur again, only this time they will apply for work permits first maybe.

[barbis9]

A big concern also is the chemicals these children and adults are exposed to. Pesticides that are banned in Canada are still being used worldwide.

[EvilTofu]

I know. That's why I haven't eaten shrimp in 5 years. You can't even tell by country of origins because some of the shrimp were cleaned by slaves owned by pirates. They then sell the seafood on shores where-ever they land.

The only good place to buy shrimp is Whole Foods, they know exactly the farm they came from, but at $23 a pound. (I remember that was the rate back in the 80s. Shrimp was a fancy thing you eat once in a while!)

To be honest, I'm not too concern with child labour, I'm more upset that they are enslaved. Some child labour is better than the alternatives. In Cambodia, they outlawed Child Labour more than a decade ago in order to make trade deals with the US. Desperate children ended up in drug trafficking and sex industry. (NPR Planet Money) I'd rather they make clothes than blowing some guys. I often wonder if those children would have better lives if child labour is legal and regulated.