Submitted by crinadmin on
Hundreds of thousands of child farmworkers are laboring under
dangerous and grueling conditions in the United States, Human
Rights Watch charged in a report released today. HRW found that
child farmworkers often work twelve-and fourteen-hour days, and
risk pesticide poisoning, heat illness, injuries and life-long
disabilities. The vast majority of child farmworkers are Latino. The
laws governing minors working in agriculture are much less
stringent than those for other sectors of the economy, Human
Rights Watch said, allowing children to work at younger ages, for
longer hours, and under more hazardous conditions than children
in other jobs. "Fingers to the Bone:United States Failure to
Protect Child Farmworkers," focuses on children aged thirteen to
sixteen. Some of these young workers told Human Rights Watch
that they work as many as seventy or eighty hours a week.
Often, their workdays begin before dawn.
For a copy of the report and to order online:
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2000/frmwrkr