Ethiopian Review

DW-TV reporter Jesko Johannsen investigates child labor practices in Ethiopia. Watch below

The International Labor Organization (ILO) estimated that 53.7 percent (3.9 million) of children between the ages of 10 and 14 were working in Ethiopia. Children in Ethiopia work both in the informal and formal sectors. Despite the government’s assurances that children are not engaging in economic activities in the formal sector, particularly on government-owned plantations, a joint study conducted by the ILO regional office in Addis Ababa and the Eastern Africa Multidisciplinary Advisory Team (EAMAT) discovered children working on state-owned farms. Children were found working on cotton, sugarcane, coffee, and tea plantations.

In urban areas of Ethiopia, children are found working as domestic servants, street peddlers, and as employees in private enterprises. Children have also been reportedly shipped to Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the Middle East to work as house servants or nannies.666 Children working as domestic servants, most of whom are girls, are often victims of physical, emotional and sexual abuse, including rape.

Girls as young as 11 years old are recruited to work in the commercial sex industry in brothels, bars, and hotels, where they are at great risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases, particularly HIV infection. Furthermore, the underground child sex trade and sex tourism in Ethiopia is reportedly on the rise, and more organized than once believed. Children’s involvement in the commercial sex trade occurs mainly in resort towns and truck stops in Addis Ababa.