Luanda – At least 2,484 cases of child labor were registered by the National Children's Institute (INAC) between January and June this year, INAC’s assistant director general, Elisa Gourgel, told ANGOP on Wednesday.
The cases registered involve 1,550 boys and 934 girls who, with the knowledge of their parents and guardians, gave up academic training to dedicate themselves to work to help their parents.
Elisa Gourgel made the statement during the celebration of the World Day Against Child Labor (June 12), a date established by the International Labor Organization (ILO) in 2002, with the aim of reflecting on and raising awareness about this type of work, which is a violation of children's rights.
According to the INAC assistant director, the Angolan government has adopted a set of regulations to make parents and guardians who put their children to exploitative child labor criminally accountable.
Without giving any comparative figures, she called on Angolan society and others to help put an end to this practice, which is a crime.
In 2023, INAC recorded 4,320 cases of child exploitation.
The coordinator of the Secretariat of the National Action Plan for the Eradication of Child Labor, Alberto Francisco, said that, in recent years, there has been a high level of reporting of cases of violation of rights, using the SOS - Children line (number 115).
He revealed that in 2023, more than a thousand calls were registered from people reporting cases of child labor.
The complaints, he said, followed awareness campaigns carried out by the ministries of Public Administration, Labor and Social Security, Social Action, Family and Women's Promotion, the National Children's Institute and social partners.
According to the official, economic and cultural factors tend to negatively influence this practice.
The celebrations take place under the theme "Turning our commitments into action: let's end child labor".
According to the International Labor Organization, around 160 million children are in child labor. AB/JAM/OHA/AMP
