A New York Times investigation recently found that record numbers of immigrant children are entering the United States without parental supervision, where they end up working in violation of child labor laws. Many well-known companies in the United States are suspected of illegally employing child labor.
According to the New York Times, immigrant child labor has exploded across the United States, and immigrant child labor is found in “dangerous industries in dozens of states across the United States,” such as construction sites and slaughterhouses. In addition, including Ford,General Motors、walmartWhole Foods andTargetChild labor has been found in the supply chains of major U.S. brands and retailers.
New York Times reporter Hannah Dreyer:These children have to do some of the hardest work in the country, so I’ve spoken to over 100 kids working illegally, jobs they shouldn’t be doing. I spoke with them on the top of the three-story building outside the meatpacking plant, where they were building the roof. You’d think that child labor would disappear at the turn of the last century, but I’m seeing it on the rise. All indications are that hundreds of thousands of children and possibly many more will be in this situation.
Surveys show that many of these children have passed through the US federal child welfare system, but the government is eager to send them to society instead of sending them to guardians. The hosts saddled the children with all kinds of debts that forced them to work. Nobody in the government is stalking them.
New York Times reporter Hannah Dreyer:Just having a social worker to care for a child can make a big difference. No one is looking to see where the kids actually live, to see if they’re in school, to see if the adults in these kids’ lives are helping them.
U.S. official statistics show that since 2018, cases of illegal employment of child labor by U.S. companies have soared by 70%, and the number of children employed in dangerous work has increased by 26%. Many children are injured while performing hazardous labor. According to reports, since 2017, at least a dozen migrant child laborers have tragically died in the workplace, and many child laborers have suffered permanent disabilities due to serious injuries.
New York Times reporter Hannah Dreyer:We found children with severe injuries, their legs were sawed off at the chicken processing plant, they fell off the roof and broke their backs. We have recently identified at least a dozen child labor deaths.
According to data from the U.S. Department of Labor, in fiscal year 2022, 835 companies across the United States illegally employed more than 3,800 child laborers, an increase of more than 1,000 from the previous year. At present, there are more than 600 cases under official investigation.
The problem of child labor in the United States is shocking
In addition to the “New York Times”, some other American media have recently conducted investigations on the issue of child labor in the United States and discovered the shocking working life of immigrant child laborers in the United States.
Harthside Food Solutions, one of the largest food contractors in the United States, was one of the companies disclosed by the New York Times for alleged illegal use of immigrant child labor. According to US media reports, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in many OEM factories for Harthside Food Solutions, immigrant child laborers are forced to face dangerous production equipment for a long time in order to earn basic living expenses. Hours of high-intensity work and pungent and harmful dust gases, etc.
Teresa Hendricks, a local immigration attorney:Although the child labor problem is hidden, I am not surprised at all. Actually it’s an open secret.
Just on February 17, the U.S. Department of Labor announced that one of the largest food safety and sanitation service providers in the United States, “Package Sanitation Service Company”, employed at least 102 minors aged 13 to 17 in 8 states including Arkansas and Colorado. Thirteen meat processing plants in China worked overnight. Investigators said that their main job was to clean up sharp meat processing or slaughtering equipment, often using corrosive chemicals, and accidents of scratches, stab wounds, and burns occurred from time to time.
reporter:Have you ever seen children or workers who look like children working in these meatpacking plants?
Former managers of “Packaging Sanitation Services”:Yes.
reporter:How big do they look?
Former managers of “Packaging Sanitation Services”:Probably about 12 years old.
reporter:How did you feel when you saw these child laborers working?
Former managers of “Packaging Sanitation Services”:It was very uncomfortable.
Illegal child labor has a long history in the United States. Some states in the United States even encourage minors to participate in labor. Recently, the local council in Iowa plans to relax the working hours limit for local teenagers aged 14 to 17. The local people expressed angrily that they did not want to sell the labor of minors in exchange for living income.
Iowa Protesting Residents:We don’t need more kids working in manufacturing plants or packing plants, kids can’t be bought or sold.
The United States has not yet ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the problem of child labor is shocking, especially in the field of agriculture. According to data provided by the American non-profit organization “Farm Workers Employment Project Federation”, there are still 500,000 to 800,000 child laborers working on farms in the United States. Officials of the Department of Labor, who are in charge of investigating child labor in the United States, also said that the problem of child labor in the United States is becoming more and more serious.
reporter:Is this child labor survey different from previous ones?
U.S. Department of Labor officials:I have never seen such a serious problem of child labor before.
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Editor in charge: Li Tong