Child labor violations, including forced child labor, are rarely reported, investigated, or prosecuted in major urban areas across Saudi Arabia; investigations are nonexistent in more remote regions. It has become one of the most distressing sights throughout the Kingdom to see children of families out of school working at car workshops, traffic lights and outside malls. The children have been seen selling gum, working for mechanics as gofers or simply begging in the streets, making SR20 a day or often nothing at all. Sajid, a five-year-old Afghani child, kept following one of the Saudi Gazette reporters, begging him to buy some gum. When asked about his parents, he thought for a while as if he was reminded of something he had forgotten, or perhaps of someone who had forgotten him. A very short conversation followed: “I have a young brother,” he smiled innocently, his hand still offering the gum. “Where is he, Sajid? Is he selling here with you?” the reporter asked. “He is in Afghanistan, with my father,” he said trying to put the gum into the reporter's pocket. “And where is your mother?” asked the reporter. “She is in Makkah, please, buy this from me, please!” he insisted. He took the money, turned away, and immediately started searching for his next customer. Despite the attempts made by the reporter to find out about his family background, the boy's greater concern was to get rid of the gum box between his two little hands before the end of the day. The reporter watched from a distance to see who would eventually come to collect the child. At 11 P.M., after all the shops had closed, an old man with a white beard dressed in Afghani-type clothes appeared and called to the boy. Sajid immediately went to the man and handed over the money he had earned during the day. He stood quietly, his eyes on the ground, while the old man counted the day's takings. The old man then took Sajid to a car filled with other children and drove away. “Family disintegration, low cultural awareness, ignorance about provisions of laws regarding child labor, and trafficking of children from neighboring countries, especially Yemen, are the factors contributing to this problem,” said Saud Al-Shehri, a Saudi social researcher. “About 88 percent of the mothers of child beggars are illiterate and only nine per cent of them hold even an elementary school certificate.” “Poverty forces these children to resort to begging and finding street jobs to make a living for themselves and their family members,” he added. And Sajid is not alone. According to UNICEF, an estimated 158 million children aged 5-14 are engaged in child labor - one in six children in the world. Mohammad, a 19-year-old from Africa, has worked as a laborer in Jeddah since he was 10 years old. It was not easy to convince him to talk, but his employer, Abu Yousef, encouraged him to do so. “He is forced to work so that he can pay for school and help provide for his family,” said Abu Yousef, a Palestinian mechanic, “He is attending French school in the morning and comes to the shop at five in the evening. He is a professional mechanic now and can fix any car,” he said. Abu Yousef has also hired Abdulfatah, a 10-year-old African boy who has been working for with him for three years. “It is better to hire them at an early age otherwise they will become criminals and thieves,” said Abu Yousef. Many employers in the industrial districts in Jeddah refused to let the reporters talk to their child workers. They claimed they wanted to protect the “reputations of the children's families.” Many employers refused to be photographed while others ordered the reporters to leave. In some workshops, the employers are the fathers of the children, such as Mozafer, a 55-year-old Turkish man, who had his nine-year-old son working with him in the car workshop as a mechanic. “My son is not a good student,” said Mozafer, “He was having problems memorizing what he was being taught at school. This is why I wanted him to be a good mechanic instead.” Mozafer said he wanted to enroll his son in some courses but he could not afford it. “I have to allocate SR240 every day to provide my son with extra lessons outside of school hours. This I cannot afford,” said Mozafer. Fateh, Mozafer's son, said he missed his school and teachers. “I wouldn't have left my school if I had the choice,” said Fateh, “But my father needs me to be here with him to help my family. I really do miss the school. Whenever my friends mention it I feel depressed. I wish I could go to school again,” he said. The Saudi labor law says a child's work should not interfere with his or her schooling or be harmful to the child's health, either physically, mentally, spiritually, morally or socially, said a recent study on child labor in the Kingdom conducted by Muhammad Al-Naji from King Khaled University, Abha. Al-Naji also said that the regulation specifies penalties for those employing children below the age of 13, and that government civil service regulations do not allow the employment of anyone below the age of 18. Not far from Fateh, Muhammad Saleh, an 11-year-old Pakistani boy, said he has been working at a carpentry shop for two years. After convincing him that we were not from the Municipality, he said, “I have to work to finance myself and my family.” Saudi children have also been engaged in forced labor, Al-Naji's study showed. The study, sponsored by King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology, showed that 1.5 percent of Saudi children are employed as child laborers. The study also said that the Eastern province has the highest rate, at 2.3 percent of the region's population, followed by Makkah, Madina, Asir and Riyadh. Some 2,000 Saudi children were surveyed in the study. Economic conditions were cited as one of the main factors pushing children into the labor market. Other reasons included failure at school and family pressure. The percentage of Saudi children at work does not make it a “phenomenon,” said Saudi social researcher Nassar Al-Otaibi. The overwhelming majority of child laborers are foreigners, he said. Awad Al-Radadi, Deputy Minister of Social Affairs said that the majority of child laborers have come from neighboring countries. The ministry has cooperated with other government offices to help the families of child laborers, Radadi said. In Dammam, the public relations officer at the Women's Supervision Office of the Ministry of Social Affairs said, however, that they had not encountered any case of child labor in their work with families. The representatives of a major charity center in the area told Saudi Gazette that they have also not dealt with such cases. Al-Naji has recommended a new law enforcing the protection of childhood in the Kingdom in accordance with the regulations of the International Labor Organization and the United Nations.
