Filipino children risk lives to mine gold in ‘terrifying conditions’

Pic: Human Rights Watch.

 

By Asian Correspondent Staff Sep 30, 2015

 

A human rights group says the Philippine government has failed to protect thousands of children, some as young as 9 years old, who risk their lives by working in illegal gold mines under what it describes as “terrifying conditions”.

 

Human Rights Watch’s report, “What…if Something Went Wrong: Hazardous Child Labor in Small-Scale Gold Mining in the Philippines”, released Wednesday said children work in unstable 25-meter (80-foot) deep pits or underwater along coastal shores or rivers, processing gold with mercury, a toxic metal.

 

In September 2014, a 17-year-old boy suffocated in an underground mine because there was no machine providing oxygen.

 

Those who dive for gold stay underwater for hours in 10-meter- (30-foot-) deep shafts, receiving air from a tube attached to an air compressor.

 

The New York-based group says it interviewed 135 people, including 65 child miners from 9 to 17 years of age, in eastern Camarines Norte and Masbate provinces in 2014 and 2015.

Pic: Human Rights Watch.

 

“Filipino children are working in absolutely terrifying conditions in small-scale gold mines,” said Juliane Kippenberg, associate children’s rights director at Human Rights Watch and author of the report. “The Philippine government prohibits dangerous child labor, but has done very little to enforce the law.”

 

The report says the children, mostly from impoverished households, skip school because of their mining work and sometimes drop out altogether.

 

“Lots of children in Masbate and Camarines Norte are dropping out of school to work in gold mining,” Kippenberg said. “In order to tackle the root causes of child labor, the government needs to assist the poorest families financially and ensure their children are able to attend and stay in school.”

Pic: Human Rights Watch.

 

The Philippines is the world’s 20th largest gold producer. An estimated 200,000 to 300,000 people work in the country’s small-scale gold mines. Large and small-scale mines combined produced about 18 tons of gold in 2014, at a market value of over US$700 million, according to official statistics.

 

The country’s central bank is the official buying agent for gold from small-scale mining and exports it. However, the bank has no process in place to check the conditions in which the gold has been mined. Other gold is smuggled out of the country.

 

“Small-scale mining provides a vital livelihood for many Filipinos,” Kippenberg said. “But the government needs to take urgent steps to ensure a safe and child-labor-free mining sector so that families can earn an income without putting their children at risk.”

 

Philippines Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz says the government is addressing the problem.

Additional reporting from Associated Press