Africa-Press – Angola. The Minister of Public Administration, Labor and Social Security, Teresa Rodrigues Dias, said this Tuesday, in the municipality of Catumbela (Benguela), that there is great determination on the part of the authorities to combat and minimize the impact of child labor in the country .
Speaking to the press, on the sidelines of the fifteenth meeting of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP), the official said that the country, as a signatory to the International Labor Organization (ILO) convention, has been working, gradually, to achieve the desired results.
“This process involves the use of large sums, so we have resorted to the support of the Presidency of the Republic”, he said.
According to the minister, before practical results can be achieved, it is necessary to create legal conditions to eradicate child labor in Angola, which is why a multisectoral commission was created.
“We had to see the structuring issues that are the training that we have, at the level of all areas, bodies that can work in this perspective, in order to convey to society and to minors themselves a message that the ILO recommends to its member states” , clarified.
To achieve this aim, he added, there was a need to work on a financial structure that allows training to be carried out across the country.
“This year we are going to get into the more practical issues in the fight against child labor and then, obviously, we will tackle the most critical areas, such as the work with the National Children’s Institute and other bodies that are coordinated by the Ministry of Social Action, Family and Promotion of Childhood. woman,” he explained.
The minister made a point of stating that many people criticize child labor, but “send children to wash their cars and, sometimes, they don’t even pay”.
According to the minister, the General Labor Inspectorate has been working hard when receiving complaints involving forced labor, coordinating with the Criminal Investigation Service (SIC) to combat this type of practice.
Teresa Rodrigues Dias was approached about complaints from Unions, in Benguela, regarding the so-called “modern slavery”, practiced by certain Asian companies in the fishing industry.
On this aspect, he stated that he has been working closely with the unions, both UNTA and SGSILA.
“We are aware, sometimes punctually, sometimes through social networks, that there have been practices involving companies that do not give their workers holidays or weekends, forcing them to work uninterruptedly until they achieve their objectives”, he said.
“We want to take the opportunity to state that these acts are not only condemnable, but also criminal”, he stressed.
He appealed not to wait for the IGT to act, but to opt for the practice of reporting, in order to tackle the problem together with the SIC and the press.
“Our ideal goal would be to have enough people and means, from a local point of view, to be able to make permanent visits to offenders, but we still don’t have that capacity”, concluded Teresa Dias.
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