Children as young as eight are working 15-hour days making bricks that have been used in major international development projects in Nepal, including a World Food Programme (WFP) project funded with $3.2m (£2m) of UK aid money.
A Guardian investigation has revealed that “blood bricks”, tainted by human rights abuses such as child labour, have also been used in other major construction projects in Nepal, including a multimillion pound upgrade of Tribhuvan international airport funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), a new Marriott hotel and a project to improve Kathmandu’s domestic air terminal.
The findings suggest that international donors, aid agencies, multinational companies and the Nepalese government are systematically failing to ensure that there are effective policies in place to keep their supply chains free from child and bonded labour, and have failed to recognise the appalling conditions prevalent in Nepal’s brick industry.
The brick industry in Nepal is booming, with more than 1,100 kilns operating across the country. The industry is characterised by long hours, low pay and a system of debt bondage. Experts estimate that up to 28,000 children are working in brick kilns across Nepal, of whom half are under 14, with tens of thousands of adult labourers potentially trapped in conditions amounting to forced or bonded labour.
At the Bhramhayani Mata brick factory near Bhaktapur, a town adjoining Kathmandu, hundreds of workers from some of the poorest regions in Nepal sleep in tiny shacks spread out across the fields where they work. At 1.45am, eight-year-old Shankar Thing and his three teenage brothers are among the workers heading out into the freezing darkness to start their day’s work.
Aid Money Development Projects Use Child Labour
The Guiding Principles of the UK Action Plan on Business and Human Rights explicitly name children as a group that require particular attention given that they are frequently the most vulnerable and marginalised in society. Children under the age of 18 constitute over half the population in many developing countries and are consumers, members of employees’ families, future employees and business leaders.
They also live in the communities and share the environments in which businesses operate, and are often affected more severely than adults by the hazards of industry, such as pollutants. The government must ensure that children are recognised as stakeholders of business and that the specific challenges faced by children are understood and given adequate attention in the implementation of the plan.
Does the UK's Action Plan for Business and Human Rights Deliver for Children?
Twelve-year-old Salamat Ahmed works up to 14 hours a day in a brick factory in Sheikhupura, about 100km north of Lahore. His hands bear burn marks from placing bricks in the kiln. "I have been doing this work since I was six. Even when I was younger, I helped my mother. We 'belong' to the brick kiln owner and cannot leave this place," Salamat told IRIN, before he was pulled away by his older brother, Karamat, who said: "We don't want any trouble."
Despite his arduous life, Salamat, who has never been to school, wears a big grin across his face. He dreams of becoming a cricket player, or riding his own motorcycle. Salamat, his parents and three siblings, are among the 1.7 million bonded labourers that the International Labour Organization (ILO) says exist in Pakistan. Despite laws banning bonded labour, including the Bonded Labour (Abolition) Act of 1992, forced labour, often through debt bondage, remains widespread.
"What happens is that employers, in this case the brick kiln owners, advance sums of money to the labourers to meet urgent needs. Because the wages paid to the labourers are so low, the loans cannot be paid back even over many years, and the workers cannot leave the kiln as they are indebted to the owners," said I.A. Rehman, director of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP).
Bonded Labourers, Children Eke Out Existence at Brick Kilns
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Afghanistan Rebuilds USing Child Labour
The Guiding Principles of the UK Action Plan on Business and Human Rights explicitly name children as a group that require particular attention given that they are frequently the most vulnerable and marginalised in society. Children under the age of 18 constitute over half the population in many developing countries and are consumers, members of employees’ families, future employees and business leaders.
They also live in the communities and share the environments in which businesses operate, and are often affected more severely than adults by the hazards of industry, such as pollutants. The government must ensure that children are recognised as stakeholders of business and that the specific challenges faced by children are understood and given adequate attention in the implementation of the plan.
Does the UK's Action Plan for Business and Human Rights Deliver for Children?
Twelve-year-old Salamat Ahmed works up to 14 hours a day in a brick factory in Sheikhupura, about 100km north of Lahore. His hands bear burn marks from placing bricks in the kiln. "I have been doing this work since I was six. Even when I was younger, I helped my mother. We 'belong' to the brick kiln owner and cannot leave this place," Salamat told IRIN, before he was pulled away by his older brother, Karamat, who said: "We don't want any trouble."
Despite his arduous life, Salamat, who has never been to school, wears a big grin across his face. He dreams of becoming a cricket player, or riding his own motorcycle. Salamat, his parents and three siblings, are among the 1.7 million bonded labourers that the International Labour Organization (ILO) says exist in Pakistan. Despite laws banning bonded labour, including the Bonded Labour (Abolition) Act of 1992, forced labour, often through debt bondage, remains widespread.
"What happens is that employers, in this case the brick kiln owners, advance sums of money to the labourers to meet urgent needs. Because the wages paid to the labourers are so low, the loans cannot be paid back even over many years, and the workers cannot leave the kiln as they are indebted to the owners," said I.A. Rehman, director of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP).
Bonded Labourers, Children Eke Out Existence at Brick Kilns
World Vision Child Labour Fact Sheet
Too Young to Work
258 Bonded Laborers Rescued
Afghanistan Rebuilds USing Child Labour
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