VZCZCXYZ0000
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHSJ #0519/01 1682215
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 162215Z JUN 08 ZDK
FM AMEMBASSY SAN JOSE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9852
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS SAN JOSE 000519 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR WHA/CEN RBEAL, DRL/ILCSR MMITTELHAUSER, G/TIP SSTEINER AND 
DEPT OF LABOR DOL/ILAB FOR RRIGBY. 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV ELAB EIND ETRD PHUM SOCI ILO CS
SUBJECT: COSTA RICA RESPONSE: FORCED LABOR AND CHILD LABOR IN THE 
PRODUCTION OF GOODS 
 
REF: A) State 43120, B) 07 San Jose 2041, C) San Jose 194 
 
¶1. SUMMARY: In response to Ref A, the Costa Rican Ministry of Labor, 
UN agencies and NGOs reported no new information regarding 
exploitative child labor (Ref B) and only sparse, anecdotal 
information regarding forced labor in the production of goods. 
Agricultural production on family farms and small third-party farms 
characterized the majority of child labor used in the production of 
goods - specifically tomatoes, oranges, sugar cane, melons, coffee 
and bananas. A very small percentage of child labor is also present 
in the fishing industry. Per ILAB's definition, this labor is 
exploitative in the sense that the nature or circumstances of the 
work is likely to harm the health or safety of the child workers. As 
for industrial labor, because the Costa Rican manufacturing sector 
is relatively formalized and in many cases requires technical skills 
(one of the largest employers is Intel, for example), forced labor 
in "maquila" type settings was reported by all not/not to be a 
problem. Two agencies that worked with human trafficking issues 
reported that stories circulated about forced labor in fisheries in 
the Pacific region and in farming (Ref C). However, one of those 
told us that Costa Rican officials had not investigated nor 
confirmed these reports and that no statistics were available on 
numbers of potential victims. END SUMMARY. 
 
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CHILD LABOR 
----------- 
 
¶2. The Ministry of Labor's Office for the Eradication of Child Labor 
and Protection of the Adolescent Worker (OATIA, Spanish acronym) 
reported that child labor is not/not considered a problem in the 
formal economic sector (manufacturing and larger-scale 
export-oriented agriculture). However, child labor is existent in 
informal agricultural sectors. The ILO (OIT, Spanish acronym) office 
in Costa Rica corroborated that assessment. The latest available 
child-labor statistics for Costa Rica are from the 2002 Household 
Survey by the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC, 
Spanish acronym). Post reported these statistics in its 2007 Worst 
Forms of Child Labor Report (Ref B). 
 
¶3. The ILO child labor office in San Jose (OIT-IPEC, Spanish 
acronym), produced in 2003 an analysis of INEC's 2002 data entitled, 
"Informe Nacional de los Resultados de la Encuesta de Trabajo 
Infantil y Adolescente en Costa Rica" (National Report on the 
Results of the Survey of Child and Adolescent Labor in Costa Rica). 
In that analysis, OIT-IPEC reported that 113,523 children and 
adolescents age 5-17 worked. That figure represented approximately 
10 percent of the total age 5-17 population of 1,113,987. They 
further reported that over half of those workers, about 57 percent, 
were adolescents age 15-17. Just under half, about 44 percent, were 
age 5-14 (12 percent age 5-9 and 32 percent age 10-14). Therefore, 
roughly 5 percent of the total youth population was children age 
5-14 who worked. For a summary of the 2003 report, see also the 
ILO/OIT's "Trabajo Infantil en Agricultura en Cifras - 
Centroamrica, Panam y Republica Dominicana" (Child Labor in 
Agriculture by  Figures - Central America, Panama and the Dominican 
Republic) available at http://white.oit.org.pe/ipec/ 
documentos/cifras_agricultura_ca.pdf 
 
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CHILD LABOR - GOODS 
------------------- 
 
¶4. Although the Childhood and Adolescence Code (Law No. 7739, 
Article 92) set the minimum age for work at 15 years, children under 
15 were involved in the production of some agricultural and fishery 
products. As reported by OATIA, child labor and labor insertion at 
an early age were more characteristic of rural areas and the 
production of tomatoes, oranges, sugar cane, melons, coffee and 
bananas for local consumption as part of a family subsistence 
economy or for small-scale commercial farms. In the case of the 
production and export of oranges and melons, outsourced operations 
in some instances involved child workers. OAITA added, however, that 
child labor was rarely if ever present in large-scale, 
export-oriented production, since these operations required 
certification. OIT-IPEC corroborated this assessment. 
 
¶5. According to OATIA, 42 percent of the 5 percent of the children 
age 5-14 who worked (approximately 23,394 youth) were children age 
5-14 working in agriculture; the remaining 58 percent age 5-14 were 
working in construction, fisheries and domestic service. Therefore, 
approximately 2.5 percent (exact percentage undefined) of the total 
youth population of Costa Rica was children age 5-14 working in the 
production of goods, mostly in agriculture and fisheries. 
Additionally, OIT-IPEC reported in its 2003 analysis that the 
predominant economic activities for all the working youth were 
agriculture, fishing in the sea or rivers, and working in fish 
farms, which represented 44 percent of all youth economic activity. 
 
 
¶6. UNICEF confirmed that child labor in Costa Rica was markedly 
seasonal, especially in rural areas where the greatest amount of 
child labor takes place during the coffee, melon, watermelon and 
sugar cane harvesting seasons between November and January; this 
season coincides annually with Costa Rican summer vacation from 
school. 
 
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CHILD LABOR LAWS, RISKS AND GOVERNMENT ACTION 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
¶7. The government institution in charge of the fight against child 
labor is OATIA, which coordinates policy and actions taken by other 
government agencies. For a discussion of labor laws and government 
measures undertaken to end child labor, please see Ref B. 
 
¶8. Regarding exploitative child labor, OATIA reported that children 
age 5-14 years faced safety and health risks such as accidents with 
tools due to work without appropriate safety equipment and lack of 
knowledge of how to safely operate machinery. They received low 
minimum salaries and did not receive health insurance. Some 
adolescents age 15-17, while legally permitted to work, did not 
receive the minimum salary, annual leave, or Christmas bonus 
required by law, and they had to work more than 6 hours, contrary to 
labor laws. OIT-IPEC provided a report about child health and safety 
risks in coffee production entitled:  "Fichas de Seguridad y Salud 
Sobre Trabajo Infantil Peligroso en el Cultivo del Caf" (Markers of 
Security and Safety on Dangerous Child Labor in Coffee Cultivation) 
available at http://white.oit.org.pe/ipec/documentos/ 
ficha_ti_peligroso_cafe.pdf 
 
¶9. OATIA told us that children and adolescents in Costa Rica entered 
the economically-active population because of two main 
socio-economic conditions or lifestyle factors.  Either they lived 
in extreme poverty and their families could not meet basic needs 
(some of these children either left school or studied and worked in 
family subsistence farms) or they did not study due to family 
beliefs that education was not important because the parents 
themselves did not finish school. 
 
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FORCED LABOR 
------------ 
 
¶10. The Ministry of Labor reported that forced labor is not a 
problem in Costa Rica, stating that most irregular labor is 
performed by migrants (including itinerant indigenous peoples near 
the Costa Rican-Panamanian border) who work the coffee harvests but 
are not trafficked nor forced to do so. An ILO (OIT) official 
corroborated that assessment. 
 
¶11. The International Organization for Migration (OIM, Spanish 
acronym) and the Rahab Foundation, two agencies that worked with 
human trafficking victims, reported that stories circulated about 
forced labor in fisheries in the Pacific region and in farming (Ref 
C, Post's 2008 Trafficking in Persons Report). However, a Rahab 
Foundation project manager told us that Costa Rican officials had 
not investigated or confirmed these reports and that no statistics 
were available on numbers of potential victims. 
 
¶12. Significant GOCR efforts were not in place to combat forced 
labor in the production of goods since it was not an "agenda" issue 
for Costa Rica, as one OIT official put it. However, the National 
Coalition against Trafficking in Persons, a government/NGO 
partnership, was working to combat human trafficking and its 
resultant forced sexual and labor exploitation, which was geared 
predominantly toward services (Ref C). Recently, the Coalition 
completed draft legislation to make internal trafficking for 
purposes of sexual or labor exploitation a crime in Costa Rica, and 
that language was added to an omnibus public security bill currently 
before the legislature. Government officials were hoping to see the 
bill passed by the end of this year. If this bill is passed, then 
potential identified victims of internal trafficking for purposes of 
agricultural or fishery production, among others, will have a legal 
basis for filing a complaint against their traffickers. Post will 
continue to monitor and report progress on this and other 
trafficking-related and labor issues. 
 
CIANCHETTE