More than 600,000 children in employment in Iran

Iran Focus: Tehran, Dec. 18 – There are at least 600,000 children ‘officially’ in employment in Iran at present, according to newly released figures. An Iranian official said that the figure comprises of children under the age of 15, according to the Iranian regime’s news agency. “Unfortunately we are witnessing an increase in the number of children forced to work”, said Arash Faraz. Iran Focus

Tehran, Dec. 18 – There are at least 600,000 children ‘officially’ in employment in Iran at present, according to newly released figures. An Iranian official said that the figure comprises of children under the age of 15, according to the Iranian regime’s news agency.

“Unfortunately we are witnessing an increase in the number of children forced to work”, said Arash Faraz. He said that official estimates show that 380,000 of these children are in full-time labour, with the rest working between jobs.

He added, “Children leave their school studies in the hope of earning small sums of money”.

He also noted that apart from the mental and physical scars the children are faced with, they also suffer from very bad work conditions as they are not part of any work unions since they are working illegally. The majority of these children receive below minimum-wage and have no where to turn to for fear of loosing their jobs.

The Iranian authorities officially announced some time ago that there are over a million street-children throughout the country, many of which have no choice other than to find hard work to be able to earn enough to eat.