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Child Labor In Somalia

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There are more than 200 million children that are labourers in this world. Somalia is ranked one of the highest countries for child labor. Child labor began around the 1700’s and started because families and people needed someone to work for them or they would not be able to survive. In Somalia and all over the world, child labor is still present. Having to work in life threatening environments, work with dangerous tools and weapons, and be forced into trafficking shows that there should be an end to child labor.

Forced child labor starts at a very young age and is extremely harmful to children, especially if they are put into the war. According to Thomson Returns Foundation, “Some of them [Somali citizens]were as young as 11 – thin, malnourished, scary-looking boys with bloodshot eyes in tattered clothes” (Baldwin). Since these poor children are forced to work at a young age, they quickly become ill. Once children are around eleven years old, they are put to work. Also, their work includes a lot of dangerous work which impacts them to physically look different from when they started working. The United States Department of Labor claims that, “Children planted explosive devices, acted as human shields, conducted assassinations and suicide attacks, gathered intelligence, and provided domestic service; girls were forced into sexual servitude” (United States Department of Labor). Children are forced to participate in life threatening acts because other people did not want to

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