The Government of Ghana (GOG) has up to the end of December, 2009 to respond to an allegation made by the US Department of Labour that Ghanaian children are being used to produce gold and tilapia.
That has become necessary because the US has indicated its intention to lay a trade embargo on these items because they have been identified as being produced by child labour.
An inter-sectoral committee, made up of top officials of the ministries of Employment and Social Welfare, Food and Agriculture, Women and Children, Mines and Natural Resources, as well as Parliamentary Select Committees on fisheries and Mining, are therefore working to come out with a national response on the issue.
Information posted on the US Labour Department website on September 11, this year, indicated that the department had identified 122 goods from 58 countries it believed to be produced by forced labour, child labour or a combination of the two.
It added that the children commonly worked to produce products or crops such as cotton, sugar cane, tobacco, coffee, rice, cocoa, bricks, garments, carpets, footwear, gold and coal.
The US Government, through its Bureau of International Labour Affairs (ILAB), had therefore given the end of December 2009, for countries affected by the report to responds to it. Child Labour is defined as work done by children under the age of 15.
In an interview with the Daily Graphic, an official of the Ministry of the Employment and Social Welfare confirmed that the government had been notified and was preparing to respond appropriately.
It pointed out that about 218 million children worked world-wide, and that 126 million of them performed dangerous jobs. The reports were based on data gleaned from foreign embassies and governments, international and non-governmental organisations, field projects, academic reports and media coverage.
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