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Addressing Child Labour in Cambodia’s Fisheries Sector

A new UN report warns that that global progress against child labour has stalled for the first time since the last two decades. The COVID-19 crisis is likely to push millions more children into child labour unless urgent mitigation measures are taken.

According to the ILO-UNICEF report namely Child labour: 2020 Global estimates, trends and the road ahead released today ( 10 June), around 160 million children – 63 million girls and 97 million boys – were in child labour globally at the beginning of 2020, accounting for almost 1 in 10 of all children worldwide. An increase of 8 million since 2016. A further 8.9 million children will be in child labour by end of 2020 as a result of rising poverty driven by the pandemic.

More than 70 percent of all children in child labour – 112 million in total - are in agriculture and represents an increase of 4 million since 2016. These children engaging in child labour in crop production, livestock, forestry, fisheries or aquaculture, often work long hours and perform hazardous tasks.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations ( FAO) is dedicated to eliminating child labour in agriculture.

In Cambodia, FAO is supporting fisheries communities to better understand the benefits of reducing child labour and improving children’s access to affordable and quality education.

Fisheries are critically important for Cambodia’s aquatic eco-systems and for the livelihoods and nutrition of the rural population.

Country Cambodia

Duration 7m24s

Edit Version Clean

Video Type B Roll Video

Date 06/09/2021

File size 1.05 GB

Unique ID UF2T7B

All editorial uses permitted

Production details and shotlist

UNFAO Source FAO Video

Shotlist Location: Kampong Chhnang Province, Cambodia, 21 January 2021

1. Aerial shot of floating houses and fishing vessels on the river

2. Aerial shot of river at dawn

Location: Kampong Chhnang Province, Cambodia, 18 January 2021

3. Wide a fishing vessel leaving shore, children playing in the foreground

4. Wide shot of women skewering freshly caught fish

5. Closeup of woman layering fish on a skewer

6. A group of men and women talking by the river

7. Women skewering fish

8. Wide shot of a group of people working

Location: Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 22 January 2021

9. SOUNDBITE (English) Alexandre Huynh, FAO Representative Cambodia: “From 15 to 17 years old the law allows children to work but there are two different categories: either it’s child labour, because the working conditions are not safe. Either it is decent, safe employment when children from 15 to 17 years old are provided with good care and good conditions without hazards”

Location: Kampong Chhnang Province, Cambodia, 19 January 2021

10. A child putting a net on a fishing vessel

11. Wide shot of a fishing vessel on the river

12. SOUNDBITE (Khmer) Van Thon, Focal point of the Commune Committee for Women and Children (CCWC): “In the past 10 to 15 years, the use of child labour in the community has been a lot. First, they always bring their children fishing with them. Second, they use their children to work for others to get extra income for their family”

13. People handling fish

Location: Kampong Chhnang Province, Cambodia, 20 January 2021

14. Tim Sreum skewering fish

15. SOUNDBITE (Khmer) Tim Sreum, Beneficiary, Chhum Kimseak’s mother: “In my childhood, I helped my mother to make steamed rice cakes to sell. I needed to wake up very early in the morning. I rowed a boat from one village to the next to sell the cakes”

16. Aerial shot of river

17. Aerial shot of a fishing vessel on river

18. Chicken in backyard

19. Wide shot of Tim Sreum cleaning pots and pans

20. Closeup of Tim Sreum

21. SOUNDBITE (Khmer) Tim Sreum, Beneficiary, Chhum Kimseak’s mother: “That was why I decided to quit school, but I let my sibling study to acquire knowledge. I did not want them to be as illiterate as me”

22. Wide shot of Tim Sreum and her family eating in a hut

23. Tim Sreum ( camera right) and her daughter Chhum Kimseak ( camera left) working together to stack piles of fish

24. SOUNDBITE (Khmer) Tim Sreum, Beneficiary, Chhum Kimseak’s mother: “That is why I want my children to become educated people. If my daughter could pass her grade 12, I would be very excited”

25. Chhum Kimseak taking fish from a container in their house

26. Wide shot of Chhum Kimseak doing her schoolwork at night by torchlight

27. Chhum Kimseak leaving her house for school early in the morning on a motorbike

28. SOUNDBITE (Khmer) Chhum Kimseak, Beneficiary: “Every day I get up at 5 o’clock, read a little, and get ready to go to school at 6 o’clock. It takes an hour. At 7am, I arrive at school”

29. Wide shot of pupils arriving at school

30. Chhum Kimseak in mask in classroom

31. Chhum Kimseak writing on white board

32. Aerial shot of Chhum Kimseak riding her motorbike on a dirt road on the way home from school

33. Wide shot of Chhum Kimseak and her father walking towards a fishing vessel

34. Chhum Kimseak working with gill nets on fishing vessel

35. Overhead shot of Chhum Kimseak and her father pulling the gill nets from river

36. SOUNDBITE (Khmer) Chhum Kimseak, Beneficiary: “I leave school at 10 o’clock. I arrive home at 11 o’clock, I have lunch and then I go fishing with my dad. When I go fishing, I throw gill nets. I release the fish from the gill nets, and I take off the scales or the fish’s skin. I’m back home at 5 in the evening. I help my mother peel the remaining fish until it’s done at around 6 or 7.

37. Wide shot of Chhum Kimseak sitting at the bow of the boat traveling down river

38. Closeup of Chhum Kimseak smoking fish

39. Wide shot of Chhum Kimseak and her family having dinner together

40. Tracking forward aerial shot of the floating houses on the river

41. Wide shot of a woman lying fish on a wire tray outside a hut

Location: Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 22 January 2021

42. SOUNDBITE (English) Kaing Kim, Deputy director general, Cambodia’s Fisheries Administration: “One of the main objectives for us to address child labour in the fishery sector is the awareness raising”

Location: Kampong Chhnang Province, Cambodia, 18 January 2021

43. Aerial shot of fishing boats and floating houses on river at sunset

44. Wide shot of a fishing boat travelling between floating houses

Location: Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 22 January 2021

45. SOUNDBITE (English) Kaing Kim, Deputy director general, Cambodia’s Fisheries Administration: “First will be at the national level with our management team and also our staff at the provincial level, and then we transfer that awareness to the community level”

Location: Kampong Chhnang Province, Cambodia, 18 January 2021

46. Wide shot of fish market

47. People inside fish market

Location: Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 22 January 2021

48. SOUNDBITE (English) Kaing Kim, Deputy director general, Cambodia’s Fisheries Administration: “Especially to the fisher family, both parents and children”

Location: Kampong Chhnang Province, Cambodia, 19 January 2021

49. Wide of a temple

50. Wide shot of gathering of villagers

51. Chhim Chhoeun speaking at a community meeting

52. SOUNDBITE (Khmer) Chhim Chhoeun, Chief of the Community Fisheries Committee, Cambodia: “The fishing community’s prominent role is to protect resources sustainably. Another role is to help increase awareness among community members with regard to what child labour is”

53. Wide shot of Chhim Chhoeun ( in glasses) talking to members of the local community

54. SOUNDBITE (Khmer) Chhim Chhoeun, Chief of the Community Fisheries Committee, Cambodia: “I visited some families and explained to each family about child labour to make it clear to them”

55. Wide shot of a motorbike driving through fishing village

56. Various of people working together to prepare a gill net

Location: Kampong Chhnang Province, Cambodia, 18 January 2021

57. Children playing together on a tree

58. A woman stacking piles of fish

Location: Kampong Chhnang Province, Cambodia, 18 January 2021

59. Pupils leaving their school wearing face masks

60. Wide shot of Chhim Chhoeun talking to members of the local community

61. A woman pushing a stroller walking down a road in the village

Location: Kampong Chhnang Province, Cambodia, 18 January 2021

62. Closeup of Chhum Veasna, Chhum Kimseak’s father pulling in a gill net

63. Wide shot of Chhum Veasna, Chhum Kimseak and her father pulling a gill net onto a boat

Location: Kampong Chhnang Province, Cambodia, 20 January 2021

64. SOUNDBITE (Khmer) Chhum Veasna, Beneficiary, Kimseak’s father: “I am pleased to send the children to school and want my children to have a promising future”

65. Wide shot of a teacher speaking to students in a classroom

66. Teacher spaking to a student

67. SOUNDBITE (Khmer) Chhum Kimseak, Beneficiary: “I want to be a teacher in the village because there is always a shortage of teachers”

68. Wide shot of Chhum Kimseak riding boat

69. SOUNDBITE (Khmer) Chhum Kimseak, Beneficiary: “If there is a teacher in a village it is easy to educate children and allow them to acquire knowledge”

70. Aerial shot of the fishing community on the river

Script A new UN report warns that that global progress against child labour has stalled for the first time since the last two decades. The COVID-19 crisis is likely to push millions more children into child labour unless urgent mitigation measures are taken.

According to the ILO-UNICEF report namely Child labour: 2020 Global estimates, trends and the road ahead released today ( 10 June), around 160 million children – 63 million girls and 97 million boys – were in child labour globally at the beginning of 2020, accounting for almost 1 in 10 of all children worldwide. An increase of 8 million since 2016. A further 8.9 million children will be in child labour by end of 2020 as a result of rising poverty driven by the pandemic.

More than 70 percent of all children in child labour – 112 million in total - are in agriculture and represents an increase of 4 million since 2016. These children engaging in child labour in crop production, livestock, forestry, fisheries or aquaculture, often work long hours and perform hazardous tasks.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations ( FAO) is dedicated to eliminating child labour in agriculture.

In Cambodia, FAO is supporting fisheries communities to better understand the benefits of reducing child labour and improving children’s access to affordable and quality education.

Fisheries are critically important for Cambodia’s aquatic eco-systems and for the livelihoods and nutrition of the rural population.

The Tonle Sap is Southeast Asia’s largest lake and the world’s most productive inland fishery.

But many families experience extreme poverty and have to use their children as workforce to survive.

Youth aged from 15 to 17 who are above the legal working age often engage in hazardous work.

Child labour is defined as work that is inappropriate for a child’s age, affects children’s education, or is likely to harm their health, safety or morals.

SOUNDBITE (English) Alexandre Huynh, FAO Representative Cambodia: “From 15 to 17 years old the law allows children to work but there are two different categories: either it’s child labour, because the working conditions are not safe. Or it is decent, safe employment when children from 15 to 17 years old are provided with good care and good conditions without hazards”

Many children could not attend school because they are asked to help out their families in fisheries and agriculture.

SOUNDBITE (Khmer) Van Thon, Focal point of the Commune Committee for Women and Children (CCWC): “In the past 10 to 15 years, the use of child labour in the community has been a lot. First, they always bring their children fishing with them. Second, they use their children to work for others to get extra income for their family”.

Child labour not only continues the cycle of poverty for the children involved, but also for their families and communities. Without education, these girls and boys are likely to remain poor, perpetuating their state of poverty and ultimately undermining efforts to reach sustainable food security and end hunger.

FAO has been working with the Cambodian Government and fisheries stakeholders to integrate child labour prevention into existing policies, legal frameworks and capacity building programmes.

SOUNDBITE (English) Kaing Kim, Deputy director general, Cambodia’s Fisheries Administration: “One of the main objectives for us to address child labour in the fishery sector is the awareness raising. First will be at the national level with our management team and also our staff at the provincial level, and then we transfer that awareness to the community level. Especially to the fisher family, both parents and children”.

When she was a child, Tim Sreum had to leave school to work to support her family.

SOUNDBITE (Khmer) Tim Sreum, Beneficiary, Chhum Kimseak’s mother: “In my childhood, I helped my mother to make steamed rice cakes to sell. I needed to wake up very early in the morning. I rowed a boat from one village to the next to sell the cakes. That was why I decided to quit school, but I let my sibling study to acquire knowledge. I did not want them to be as illiterate as me”.

Tim Sreum realized the importance of education. She and her husband support their 17 year-old daughter to go to school.

SOUNDBITE (Khmer) Tim Sreum, Beneficiary, Chhum Kimseak’s mother: “That is why I want my children to become educated people. If my daughter could pass her grade 12, I would be very excited.”.

SOUNDBITE (Khmer) Chhum Kimseak, Beneficiary, 17 year-old: “Every day I get up at 5 o’clock, read a little, and get ready to go to school at 6 o’clock. It takes an hour. At 7am, I arrive at school”

After school Chhum Kimseak helps her family with safe fishing tasks that don’t hamper her education and health.

SOUNDBITE (Khmer) Chhum Kimseak, Beneficiary, 17 year-old: “I leave school at 10 o’clock. I arrive home at 11 o’clock, I have lunch and then I go fishing with my dad. When I go fishing, I throw gill nets. I release the fish from the gill nets, and I take off the scales or the fish’s skin. I’m back home at 5 in the evening. I help my mother peel the remaining fish until it’s done at around 6 or 7.”

SOUNDBITE (Khmer) Chhum Kimseak, Beneficiary, 17 year-old: “I want to be a teacher in the village because there is always a shortage of teachers. If there is a teacher in a village it is easy to educate children and allow them to acquire knowledge. If there is a teacher in a village it is easy to educate children and allow them to acquire knowledge”

Not all work carried out by children is considered child labour. Some activities may help children acquire important livelihood skills and contribute to their survival and food security. However, much of the work children do in agriculture is not age-appropriate.

Child labour perpetuates a cycle of poverty for the children involved, their families and communities. 2021 is the International Year for the Elimination of Child Labour, declared by the UN General Assembly and led by ILO. FAO works with its partners to address the root causes of child labour. This includes, in particular, the ILO, IFAD, IUF and IFPRI/CGIAR through the International Partnership for Cooperation on Child Labour in Agriculture and a wide range of different actors in agriculture. FAO is also a member of the Global Coordination Group of the Alliance 8.7.

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