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SCMP Reporter

FASHIONABLE furniture store IKEA has been carpeted following the discovery that Indian children as young as five are being used to make the popular hand-knotted and handwoven rugs it sells in Hong Kong.

  Youngsters in makeshift village factories are being paid just $4 a day to make the rugs that customers in IKEA's four Hong Kong stores spend thousands of dollars on.

  Now local labour watchdogs are urging shoppers to boycott the stores until all rugs linked to child labour are removed - a move IKEA has already ruled out.

  Rex Varona, research co-ordinator for the Asian Monitor Resource Centre, part of a world-wide movement aimed at stamping out child labour, said he was 'deeply shocked' to discover IKEA was making money out of child labour.

  'You expect this kind of thing to happen in back-street stores in Hong Kong but not IKEA,' he said.

  'Child labour not only robs the child of its education but can cause severe problems with his or her health as well.

  'I'll never shop at IKEA again and I urge the people of Hong Kong to do likewise.'   Delhi-based exporter SHEENA has been making IKEA rugs for five years, but their employment of children was only exposed last month when a German television crew filmed at their factory.

  The documentary, recently broadcast in Germany, showed one 10-year-old boy working at a loom during his regular 16-hour shift. It provoked such outrage that IKEA dismissed SHEENA as a supplier the next day.

  But the Swedish-based company, which has sold thousands of the rugs from its franchised stores in Causeway Bay, Tsim Sha Tsui, Sha Tin and Tsuen Wan, refuses to withdraw existing stock.

  Caroline Mak, managing director of IKEA's Hong Kong franchise, said: 'I don't think not selling the carpets would do any good.'   She said 80 per cent of all carpets sold in IKEA were made in India, but added the Hong Kong stores had little say over which suppliers were used.

  'We are simply the retailer and are franchised to buy the carpets from IKEA,' she said.

  'It is not up to us to decide where the carpets are brought from although we deplore the use of child labour anywhere.'   The company would now get its carpets from one of IKEA's 29 other Indian-based suppliers.

  Last week, ignorant of the child labour link, staff at IKEA's Causeway Bay store said the carpets were 'big sellers'.

  'They are very bright and colourful and appeal to a wide range of people, both Chinese and expatriates,' an assistant said.

  Kailash Satyarthi, chairman of the South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude and one of the investigators who exposed SHEENA, said up to 50 million children were working in India.

  But it was a particular problem in the India's carpet industry where their nimble fingers were prized for working the heavy looms and the cost of hiring them was low.

  'The children are treated like slaves. It is not uncommon for employers to beat them if they are late for the day's work,' he said.

  'We are very pleased IKEA has cancelled this contract.'   Goram Ydstrand, a spokesman for IKEA's Swedish headquarters, said the company 'deeply regretted' the link to child labour.

  'When we signed the contract with SHEENA there was a clause which stated no child labour would be used to produce the carpets,' he said.

  'They have broken that agreement and we have now terminated the contract.

  'We are due to visit India with union representatives and Swedish Save the Children in March to see the extent of the problem.

  'Because of the complicated nature of child labour, it is difficult to ensure our suppliers are not using children to make carpets.

  'But any of them we find to breaking the terms of our agreement will immediately have the contract terminated.'   However, Mr Ydstrand could see no 'logical' reason for withdrawing existing stock in Hong Kong.

  'The damage has already been done. Action is now being taken to ensure this does not happen again,' he said.



Child labour used to make IKEA carpets