Ivory Coast and Ghana should be on alert for a spike in child labor due to the coronavirus, experts said, with schools closed and monitors unable to access villages in cocoa harvest season. The two West African countries together produce about 65% of the world’s cocoa and child labor has been a longstanding problem in the sector, despite pledges from chocolate companies including Nestle and Hershey to reduce it.
Fairtrade Africa said it had received reports of possible cases in Ivory Coast’s eastern and western regions in recent weeks and flagged them to the government. Government spokesmen for Ivory Coast and Ghana could not immediately be reached for comment.
They do not have staff on the ground because of the pandemic, and the shelters where rescued children are normally taken have closed, she added. More than 2 million children work in the cocoa sector in Ghana and Ivory Coast, an increase from 10 years ago, according to a draft of a U.S. government-sponsored report seen by Reuters this month. Some children work for their parents while others are trafficked from abroad, according to activists.
Early action such as cash transfers to households could help, Weatherill said, since economic losses due to the pandemic will also be a risk factor forcing children to work. Teachers are often the first to spot child abuse, said Yao, who suggested the state could instruct them to somehow keep in touch with their students and not all leave the communities. Ivory Coast’s national anti-trafficking committee released a statement last week reminding parents that child labor is punishable by law.
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation
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