ILO, Thai government work together on child labour survey

BANGKOK, June 14 (TNA) - The Thai government, through the Ministry of Labour and the the National Statistical Office (NSO), under the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society, has signed an agreement with the Geveva-based International Labour Organization (ILO) on a joint survey of child labour in Thailand during June 2018-February 2019. Labour Minister Police General Adul Sangsingkeo announced the cooperative move between the Thai government and the ILO while presiding over an event marking the World Day Against Child Labour 2018, held at his ministry in Bangkok on June 13. The minister told journalists that the agreement, signed by his ministry, the NSO and the ILO, is aimed to develop an updated database to be used for supporting the Thai government's policy making on the solution to the problem of child labour more precisely and practically in the future. The minister stated that Thailand has ratified the ILO's Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No.182) since 2001 and has been well-aware on a joint mission with the ILO and other relevant parties to expedite the solution to the child labour problem in the country, noting that the Thai government's annually observation of the World Day Against Child Labour, which falls on every June 12, is part of its policy on promoting the public awareness in the society on ending the use of child labour. According to the minister, a survey conducted by his ministry's Department of Labour Protection and Welfare in 2015 found that Thailand had a total child population of 10.8 million, more than 300,000 of them were child labourers, more than 85,000 of whom worked in mischievous conditions. The labour minister acknowledged, however, that a report on worst forms of child labor conducted and released by the US Department of Labor in 2016 said the child labour situation in Thailand was "significant advancement" with the declining trend of the use of the child labour, reflecting the Thai government's attempts on preventing and ending the problem of worst forms of child labour in the country, while also taking care of child labourers to be legally-protected and have their human rights upheld. (TNA)