Minor miners in peril: Child workers face 'terrifying' conditions in gold industry

The Philippine government has failed to protect thousands of children, some as young as nine years old, who risk their lives by working in illegal, small-scale gold mines under terrifying conditions, a human rights group said yesterday.

Human Rights Watch’s report said the children work in unstable 25-metre deep pits or underwater along coastal shores or rivers, processing gold with mercury, a toxic metal that can cause irreversible health damage. Those who dive for gold stay underwater for several hours at a time in 10-metre deep shafts, receiving air through a tube attached to an air compressor.

The New York-based group says it interviewed 135 people, including 65 child miners from 9 to 17 years of age, in eastern Camarines Norte and Masbate provinces in 2014 and 2015.

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said that the government is addressing the problem by prosecuting those forcing the children to work, and by providing the children with health, education and livelihood programs.]

The Philippines had nearly 5.5 million working children in 2011, according to government statistics, with 3.2 million of them considered child laborers because they worked long hours or in hazardous environments.

“Filipino children are working in absolutely terrifying conditions in small-scale gold mines,” said Juliane Kippenberg, associate children’s rights director at Human Rights Watch and author of the report. “The Philippine government prohibits dangerous child labor, but has done very little to enforce the law.”