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Pandemic leads to increase in child labor in Iraq

Child labor has increased dramatically in Iraq, with children starting work younger as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
An Iraqi boy sells cotton candy by the Shatt Al-Arab River in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, Nov. 14, 2020.

Young girls sell narcissus at the traffic lights. Boys push carts with fruit or ice blocks, serve tea, help unload trucks and run errands for shopkeepers. Child labor is already part of daily life in Iraq, but since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, a record number of children have entered the workplace.

“It is not a priority for the authorities to tackle this,” said Vice President Tanya Gilly Khailany of the Seed Foundation, providing one reason for its continued growth. This lack of urgency translates into a lack of official statistics. Both nongovernmental organizations working in Iraq and the International Labor Organization (ILO) have called for action.

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