HC Deb 23 July 1997 vol 298 cc939-40
5. Mr. Pond

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what measures her Department plans to take to discourage the exploitation of children in employment in developing countries. [8360]

Clare Short

I have already announced that we shall be strengthening our support for the efforts of the International Labour Organisation to eliminate hazardous and exploitative child labour, which includes the sexual exploitation of children for commercial purposes—the most abominable exploitation of all. Through our bilateral programmes, we are ready to support other initiatives in that area. We are supporting efforts in Britain to develop and monitor codes of conduct to ensure decent labour standards for adults and children in industries providing our imports.

Mr. Pond

I thank my hon. Friend for that encouraging answer. She will be aware that there is also a major problem of illegal child employment in this country, which accounts for one third of working children throughout Europe. Would it not be the finest achievement for my right hon. Friend and her new Department to go down in history as the Wilberforce of the 21st century by helping to eradicate child exploitation throughout the world?

Clare Short

I thank my right hon. Friend, though I do not know that I can quite aspire to matching Wilberforce. The comparison with our own country is useful: it enables us to see the difference between the beneficial experience provided for children by the Saturday jobs that we have all done and the exploitation of children working too long hours. That must be our attitude both in this country and overseas, rather than a crude call for boycotts whenever there is any child labour. We must make sure that it is properly controlled, that it is in proper sectors and that the children are not being deprived of education. We must take the same approach in our own country as elsewhere. We have made a $1 million donation to the International Labour Organisation for its work on the new convention on the outlawing of hazardous and exploitative child labour.

Mr. David Davis

As Wilberforce was a predecessor in my constituency, I have a great deal of sympathy with the hon. Member for Gravesham (Mr. Pond). The Minister will know that in many countries with no welfare system the income from children in their low teens is a major part of a family's income, particularly if the parents are disabled. What would the Minister do if some of the initiatives to which she has referred meant that some families were left not just in poverty but facing starvation?

Clare Short

The right hon. Gentleman is right to make that point. There were moves in the United States to ban the import from Bangladesh of any products involving child labour. That led to many children from extremely poor families being thrown on to the street and becoming beggars, and sometimes becoming involved in child prostitution.

We must have an intelligent approach which stops the most hazardous and exploitative use of children, particularly in the commercial sex industry. There are parts of the world where children are traded for such purposes. That is intolerable and we must do all that we can to prevent it. In very poor countries we must seek to control child labour rather than outlawing it and to ensure that children receive some education: it should not be labour at the price of the rest of their lives. The right hon. Gentleman is right in his fundamental approach.