We met Deputy Chief Lingwood at an event about child labour in Belize - which stems from another report from a US agency - the US Bureau on International Labour Affairs which - in September of last year - listed Belize as a country that made minimal advancement in eliminating child labour. All other countries in Central America were judged to have done better. And so, today, the Ministry of Labour, Local Government and Rural Development along with a US funded international consultant, launched the Country Level Engagement and Assistance to Reduce Child Labour Project at the Biltmore.
Labour Minister Hugo Patt spoke about the fact that child labour is used in Belize's big agro industries:..
Hon. Hugo Patt - Minister of Labour
"Children are suffering out there, children are being abused sexually, children are being overworked, children are suffering. Children that should be in school are enduring long hours of work and so my plead to all of you today is that while we can put the best defined legislation, probably the best work frames that we might have and legal frameworks - it doesn't really matter how best we put the legal jargon, what matters to me is that what we put in writing actually translates into impacting those who really matter, into impacting our children."
"We're talking about the worst form of child labour, we're talking about having children as was indicated earlier by one of the presenters that we have children working from 7 to 14 doing work out in the fields, doing work that they are exposed in agents that are harmful to them. Obviously we have children that are in many cases working long hours and so when we look at those kinds of situations there is where we have to address the issues. Certainly we don't expect and I'm sure we don't have a case where we would have a father or a mother having your children go to a farm and not go to school. Certainly we don't want to see a situation where we want to expose our children right after school going to do work that might seem hazardous, work that might affect them and so those are the kinds of issues that we want to address this morning."
Reporter
"What percentage of child labour would you consider is forced labour?"
Hon. Hugo Patt
"So far we don't have the full statistics but from what we get in the agriculture sector we have a high instance of child labour and precisely our main contributors in this particular exercise are the people from the agriculture sector."
Deborah Lingwood - Acting Deputy Chief of Mission
"And so in Belize we recognize there is child labour but we also recognize that there has been improvements in child labour for example in the sugar and citrus industry, there has been improvements, those industries are working to reduce child labour with the goal of reducing it entirely. So there are positive changes happening and what we are hoping working with the government of Belize on this project is to find ways to reduce child labour overall not just in those two sectors but across the board."
Hon. Hugo Patt
"For a fact I can tell you and I have some knowledge of the Belize Sugar Cane farming sector. They are obliged to comply, bear in mind that one of the deficiencies that they have as it pertains to the qualification of their trade is that this issue of child labour has to be addressed and so anytime the auditors would come around, you would see that if there is anything they have done wrong, one of the issues is child labour. So this will practically address one of those issues."
And, of course, as the Corozal North Representative - in the heart of cane country Patt is keenly aware of the child labour issues in that industry. But, he is also intimately aware of the cultural practice where children have to work in the family cane fields as part of growing up in cane country:..
Hon. Hugo Patt - Minister of Labour
"Last thing that we want to do is create a legal framework where you cannot tell your child after school you can go the farm and help your dad, you can go with your mom and do something. The last thing you want your child to tell you is look boss there is a law in here that prohibits you from telling me this. I mentioned it in the House of Representatives the other day; I come from a farming community. We had to help our dad to cut cane; we had to go help our dad to do the agriculture work. It wasn't seen as something that was preventing us from getting a decent education. For us it was just part of an extended family."
"While there might be the legal interpretation as to what is defined as child labour, I have asked the committee, I've asked the stakeholders to make as well a case. We know for a fact that particularly in extended families, you would have children coming home after school and assisting either their dad or mom in the chores, we call it chores as such but how do we define those aspects of the legal jargon versus our cultural practices."
"I am sure that there will be a fine and delicate line where cultural practices would have to mesh with what is legally acceptable."
Jules Vasquez
"Now that you are have been able to pursue an education, what would you recommend your children during the day light hours after they come from school or on weekends? Would you say you stay in your books and study or let's go out in the field and bring home and chop some cane?"
Hon. Hugo Patt
"Jules I will be honest, I take my eldest son, he's 16, I take him to the fields. I have a son of 8 years, I don't expose him to the kind of work. As I indicated as a father we grew up in very harsh conditions so to say but I cannot expose my children to tell them you will just lamp up for the rest of the weekend or you will not do nothing; obviously that is not the case. For us we grew up in an extended family, this part of our tradition, this is part of our culture. Certainly I will not expose my children to working long hours; they have to learn the work eventually. I grew up in an environment where my father and my mother use to tell me son, it is not always the exercise book, it's not always the pen, you grow up where you had to use a machete, never forget where you came from."
And where he came from is Patchakan, later we'll ask Patt how it felt to be the first PM from that village - even if only for a few days.
Belize has been identified among six other countries to work in this project.
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