VZCZCXRO9474
PP RUEHMA RUEHPA
DE RUEHDK #0215/01 0540746
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 230746Z FEB 09
FM AMEMBASSY DAKAR
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1897
INFO RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 0905
RUEHLMC/MCC WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 DAKAR 000215 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR AF/W, AF/RSA, DRL/AE AND INR/AA 
DOL/ILAB for Tina McCarter 
DRL/ILCSR for Tu Dang 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ELAB EIND ETRD SOCI PHUM PGOV PINS KDEM SG
SUBJECT: SENEGAL: INFORMATION ON THE USE OF CHILD LABOR 
 
REF: 08 STATE 127448 
 
DAKAR 00000215  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1. (SBU) Responses are keyed to questions in reftel. 
 
Begin report: 
 
¶2. (SBU) Senegalese law prohibits forced or compulsory labor, 
including by children; however, such practices were widespread in 
¶2008.  The law bans the exploitation of child labor, and there are 
regulations on child labor that set the minimum working age, working 
hours, and working conditions and that bar children from performing 
particularly dangerous jobs; however, child labor remains a problem. 
 Most child labor occurred in the informal economy where labor 
regulations were not generally enforced.  Economic pressures and 
inadequate educational opportunities often push rural families to 
emphasize income generating activities over education for their 
children. 
 
¶3. (SBU) The minimum age for employment was 15; however, children 
under the age of 15 continued to work in traditional labor sectors, 
particularly in rural areas where there was little enforcement of 
child labor laws.  The Government's National Agency of Demography 
and Statistics published in August 2008 a national child labor 
survey which measured the economic activities of children during the 
prior 12 months.  According to the survey 1,378,724 of the country's 
3,759,074 children between the ages of 5 and 17 years (37 percent) 
worked.  Child labor was especially common in the regions of 
Tambacounda, Louga, and Fatick.  Child labor is prevalent in many 
informal and family-based sectors such as agriculture, fishing, 
artisanal gold mining, tailoring shops, garage mechanics, and metal 
and wood working shops.  Many religious instructors in Koranic 
schools brought young boys (Talibes) from rural villages to urban 
areas and held them under conditions of servitude, forcing them to 
beg on a daily basis in unsanitary and dangerous conditions or work 
in the agriculture sector under the threat of physical punishment. 
 
¶4. (SBU) One particularly egregious area of child labor was in the 
mining and rock quarry sector.  Child gold washers, mostly between 
the ages of 10 and 14, worked over eight hours a day without 
training or protective equipment.  Children in artisanal gold mining 
operations use mercury in order to separate gold from soil, leading 
to sickness.  Children worked long hours in rock quarries, crushing 
rock and carrying heavy loads without protection.  Both types of 
work resulted in serious accidents and long-term illness. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Senegal's main agricultural products that are generally 
grown for internal consumption are peanuts, millet, corn, cassava, 
beans, melons, rice, sugarcane, fruit (depending on the season: 
mangoes, oranges, and mandarins), vegetables (onions, potatoes, 
tomatoes, yucca and lettuce), livestock, and for export, cotton. 
The use of Talibes in the gathering of cashew, mango and orange 
harvests is widespread in the Casamance region of Senegal.  Talibes 
work all day for about two dollars harvesting these products.  The 
adults who employ them in such tasks not only subject them to long 
hours of work but expose them to the dangers of land mines in the 
areas of Kandialan, near Ziguinchor, and Niaguis. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Children working in the fishing industry mostly come from 
the Lebou traditional families; however, many fishermen now come 
from the interior of Senegal and other surrounding countries. 
Catches include shark, broadbill, blue martin, catfish, mackerel, 
tuna, eagle ray, sole, sweetlips, mullet, herring, squid and 
shellfish.  Some inland fishing techniques potentially expose 
children to explosives. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Children also work in the collection of steel scraps which 
they sell for about six cents a kilo.  In Thies it is common to use 
Talibes to collect garbage from homes for a very small fee.  These 
young children often collapse under the heavy loads they carry. 
Child labor in the production of goods is not a major problem in 
Senegal.  Children do work in mechanic garages and fish markets but 
not in the manufacturing sector where child labor laws are more 
strictly enforced.   Children are, however, employed in Senegal's 
thousands of small tailoring shops and also in small-scale weaving 
activities, both with yarn and natural fibers.  There are also 
significant problems related to the use of underage maids. 
 
¶8. (SBU) According to an October 2007 government survey, 90 percent 
of children in Kaolack, Fatick, and Ziguinchor carry out tasks 
detrimental to their health and education.  The study also found 
that 75 percent of girls were responsible for domestic chores, 
leading to many dropping out of school. 
 
¶9. (SBU) The Ministry of Labor, through the Labor Inspection Office, 
and social security inspectors are responsible for investigating and 
 
DAKAR 00000215  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
initiating lawsuits in child labor cases.  Inspectors can visit any 
institution during work hours to verify and investigate compliance 
with labor laws and can act on tips from trade unions or ordinary 
citizens.  However, labor inspectors had very poor working 
conditions and lacked transportation to conduct their mission 
effectively.  In practice inspectors did not initiate visits because 
of a lack of resources and relied on unions to report violators. 
Labor inspectors closely monitored and enforced minimum age rules 
within the small formal wage sector, which included state owned 
corporations, large private enterprises, and cooperatives.  However, 
there were no statistics available on the number of violations 
found. 
 
¶10. (SBU) The government has raised awareness of the dangers of 
child labor and exploitive begging through seminars with local 
officials, NGOs, and civil society.  The government participated in 
a project funded by a foreign government to withdraw 3,000 children 
from and prevent 6,000 others from entering exploitive child labor 
in agriculture, fishing, begging, and domestic service.  The 
government participated in an ILO project to combat child labor.  To 
reduce the incidence of exploitive begging, the Ministry of Women, 
Family, Social Development and Women's Entrepreneurship is 
continuing with a program to help support 48 Koranic schools whose 
teachers do not force their students to engage in begging. 
 
¶11. (SBU) The national minimum wage was 209 CFAF ($0.42) per hour, 
which did not provide a decent standard of living for a worker and 
family.  The Ministry of Labor was responsible for enforcing the 
minimum wage.  Labor unions also acted as watchdogs and contributed 
to effective implementation of minimum wage in the formal sector. 
The minimum wage was not respected in the informal sector, 
especially for domestic workers.  Within the formal sector, the law 
mandates for most occupations a standard workweek of 40 to 48 hours 
with at least one 24-hour rest period, one month per year of annual 
leave, enrollment in government social security and retirement 
plans, safety standards, and other measures; however, enforcement 
was irregular.  The law does not cover the informal sector.  Premium 
pay for overtime was required in the formal sector. 
 
¶12. (SBU) While there are legal regulations on workplace safety, 
they often were not enforced.  There is no explicit legal protection 
for workers who file complaints about unsafe working conditions. 
Workers, including foreign or migrant workers, had the right to 
remove themselves from situations that endangered health or safety 
without jeopardy to their employment; however, it was seldom 
exercised due to high unemployment and a slow legal system. 
 
¶13. (SBU) According to the Minister of Labor no new laws have been 
passed in 2008 and no reforms to existing laws were drafted for the 
year. 
BERNICAT