Hon. Oscar Requena, Minister of Labor, Local Government, and Rural Development, and Andy Westby, chairman of the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association, signed an MOU at the launch of the National Child Labour Policy and Strategy.
by Charles Gladden
BELIZE CITY, Mon. July 18, 2022
A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between Hon. Oscar Requena, Minister of Labor, Local Government, and Rural Development; and Andy Westby, chairman of the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association (BSCFA) to mark the launch of the Belize National Child Labour Policy & Strategy 2022 – 2025. The policy was developed by the Labor Department and the National Child Labor Tripartite Committee.
In April 2021, the Ministry of Labor, in line with an agenda laid out by the government of Belize, embarked on the development of a National Child Labour Policy and Strategy for the nation, and a little over a year later, that process has culminated in a set of guidelines and initiatives that are geared at ending child labor in Belize by 2025.
“When we look at the policy, the policy addresses issues ensuring that our children are nurtured, that they are given the best opportunity to grow in a healthy and safe environment, and we are doing everything as a ministry to work with our stakeholders—with UNICEF, the National Committee for Children and Families and everyone involved, to ensure that our policy has adhered,” stated Minister Requena during the signing of the MOU.
The urgent need for such a policy became even more pronounced in March of this year, when 12 minors were found among a group of 39 undocumented workers on a bus owned by the Maya King enterprise that appeared to be headed to a citrus farm owned by John Zabaneh. Subsequently, the Immigration Department conducted a search on that farm and allegedly found a number of children on the property picking oranges. Zabaneh had denied any involvement in child labor or human trafficking at the time of the raid.
In reference to such scenarios—which suggest the possible use of child labor in some of the country’s agicultural enterprises, Minister Requena said, “We take that very seriously. We have a duty by virtue of our national conventions that protects the rights of children to ensure that our children are safe, that they go to school, that they’re afforded good health opportunities and that they are not deprived of their ability to be children. So certainly, we will continue to investigate this. The government is very serious working with departments such as the police, certainly the Labor Department and [the] Immigration Department, to ensure that we stamp down on these situations when they arise.”
Minister Requena acknowledged something that Zabaneh himself had mentioned when he insisted to reporters in March that he had not knowingly employed children—the fact that migrant workers in certain industries might get their children involved in the work they do in order to ensure maximum earnings.
“We do have certain industries that require migrant labor, and a lot of times we have migrants who bring their children, and because of their situation, in their country, they take every opportunity to be able to ensure that they can earn as much as they can, sometimes to the detriment of the children, sadly, and that matter has to be addressed,” Minister Requena said.
Minister Requena also informed local media that the Labor Act is currently being revised—a process that will include updating some laws that were introduced as far back as the 1960s as well as putting in place new regulations and penalties.
He remarked, “… the Act is very outdated. I think it dates back to the ’60s, and certainly, when you look at some of the penalties for child labor, it’s ridiculous. You know, 25 dollars. I’m certain in reviewing the Labor Act we are going to address those issues to ensure that our children are protected and where perpetrators are found guilty, they are going to be dealt with according to the law,”
Present at the MOU signing was the Commissioner of Police, Chester Williams, who stated, “… I think that over the years we have seen our child has been abused, misused, in different forms of labors, and without a strict policy to guide the Labor Department, the Social Department, and even the Police Department, because child labor would come under the Anti-Trafficking Persons Unit, we would be the one to investigate these types of crime, along with our partners from Ministry of Human Development. And so, it is important for us, to see the policy that will guide our investigators to ensure that if or when we have a situation that involves child labor, that they know exactly what to do, how to do it, and what are the different agents needed to ensure that the investigation is done properly,”
According to statistics from the International Labor Office (ILO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 160 million children—or about one in ten children worldwide—are involved in child labor. In Latin America and the Caribbean region, there are an estimated 13.7 million child laborers—5.5 million of which are involved in hazardous work.