Two men arrested for child labour

Police in Kasungu on Tuesday arrested two wealthy tobacco farmers before releasing them on bail the following day for allegedly employing child tenants in their estates.

Police and officials from the district labour office confirmed that the two were arrested after tips from the public that they employed children as tenants in their estates.

Emmanuel Acton Phiri and Nicholas Kachere Banda both from the area of Traditional Authority Chisinga allegedly employed kids aged 8, and 11 and 13 years old, respectively.

“The two commercial farmers were arrested and charged for employing children which is an offence against the Employment Act. They are expected to appear before court tomorrow,” said Andrew Gada, Kasungu Police Public Relations Officer.

Assistant District Labour Officer for Kasungu Dzoole Mwale said his office was tipped by the public about the development before making a follow up in conjunction with the police.

Kasungu is one of the districts in the country where cases of child labour are very high because of the tobacco of estates.

Last month, as nations worldwide commemorated the International Child Labour Day on June 13 under the theme Harvest for the future agriculture without child labour, it was revealed that of the 3.8 million children aged between 5-17 in Malawi, 1.4 million are engaged in child labour.

Statistics further indicate that over 700 000 children are employed in the agricultural sector in the country, which is by far the largest single sector involving children in child labour.

However, during the last 12 months over 1 000 children have so far been withdrawn from child labour and taken back to schools across the country.

The agriculture sector globally employs about 132 million girls and boys aged between 5 and 14 years old. This represents about 70 percent of the global agriculture labour force.

Although child labour in the country is against the law, cases of children being subjected to work beyond their size is increasing particularly in the tobacco and tea powered districts.