March 5, 2007
UN Official Slams Child Labor in Mexico


Frontera NorteSur


The death of a migrant child in the Sinaloa countryside has prompted a United Nations official to issue a sharp denunciation of child labor practices in Mexico. In a Mexico City press conference held last week, Dr. Jorge A. Bustamante, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, decried the death of David Salgado Aranda, a 9-year-old indigenous child from Guerrero state who was run over by a tractor on the edge of a field near Culiacan, Sinaloa, last January 6.

Dr. Bustamante charged that the accident underscored how Mexico's does not enforce national and international laws against child labor. "The case of David's death is not unique," Dr. Bustamante contended. "This is an emblematic case of a very serious problem that involves thousands of children."

Joining the UN official in the press conference were representatives of the Tlachinollan Human Rights Center of La Montaña, a Guerrero-based, non-governmental organization that is assisting the Salgado family in a campaign to obtain indemnification for David's survivors. The group is also calling for the punishment of the parties responsible for the child's death.

At the time of his death, the young migrant was reportedly working for the Agricola Paredes farms, an enterprise that cultivates tomatoes, cucumbers, chili and other products. According to Tlachinollan, the company is balking at compensating the Salgado family, using the argument that David's death occurred on a public road and that there was no written contract with the victim.

The human rights organization has documented the cases of 12 migrant children who died while employed in the agricultural harvests of northern Mexican states during 2006. The causes of death were attributed to accidents, drowning and exposure to agricultural chemicals. "The tomato that is sold in New York is the product of the blood of these children and of David," charged Abel Barrera, Tlachinollan's director. Since the beginning of 2007, two other migrant children have died in Mexico and the United States, according to Tlachinollan.

Besides justice for David Salgado, Tlachinollan is demanding that Mexico adhere to an appeal by the United Nations Children's Fund to protect young people from occupational hazards; establish a monitoring system for companies that contract agricultural laborers; create a national program to address the structural causes of migration; and comply with international agreements that Mexico has signed in the areas of labor, migrant and youth rights.

An estimated 50,000 migrants from the indigenous region of Guerrero known as La Montaña, one of the most impoverished zones of Mexico, travel north every year to work for Mexican and foreign companies in the harvests of Baja California, Sonora and Sinaloa states. Many do not have work contracts or social security coverage. From last September to December alone, a program of the federal Ministry of Social Development registered the departure of about 10,000 migrants from La Montaña; minor children under 15 years of age accounted for 46 percent of the departing migrants. Barrera said that the loss of educational opportunities is one major consequence of the mass migration.

The UN's Dr. Bustamante vowed that he would put an international spotlight on the widespread practice of child labor in Mexico. "It does not seem right to me that Mexican authorities presume that they are doing a lot for human rights when we have the case of David, which shows in a dramatic way how this is lie," Dr. Bustamante said.

Meanwhile, in a separate initiative the legislative group of the Mexican Ecological Green Party has introduced an initiative in the Chamber of Deputies to slap employers that employ children under 14 with monetary fines and stiff jail time. Violating businesses would also face closure under the proposed reform to the federal labor law.


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