The+Hellenic+Republic+(1st+Draft)

This web page have been created by Marianna Vélez

Committee international: labour organization. Topic: Child labour. Name: The Hellenic Republic

Greece is a country which belongs to the European Union and it is located at the south of Europe.Greece recognizes that Child Labour is a global issue. Child labour is a job done by a child which can be harmful to the mental and body health of the him. Most of this jobs are dangerous and take a lot of hours working instead of studing or playing. The most common jobs are in farms, mines or industries when in most of the cases are in bad conditions that can be dangerous for the children. In many situations the children could not support the effort which that job requires and they dont have protection at all to prevent accidents. Greece has implemented to solve this problem The International Convention on children´s rights (2101/1992) on the definition of child labour and the international labour convention 182 on the worst forms of child labour (2918/2001). It passed law 1837/1989 on the protection of minor form work, included an article on the protection of working minor on law 3144/2003.

In Greece is prohibited to work or to be economically active until the age of 16, but an estimate 100-150.000 of children under the age of 18 work in Greece. They are children who go very soon to school or even don´t go to school (Gypsies, immigrants and refugees) and minors who works all the week, the weekends and even the holidays as well as attending the school; this information was collected by Arsis a youth support organization. Arsis collected the information with the cooperation of the National Center for Social Research (EKKE). The National Statistics Service and Panteion University. Within the child labour there are different sectors which are: Child Slavery, Child Trafficking, Child Pornography and Prostitution, Child in Crime, Child Soldiers and Domestic Child Servants. Child labour not only happened in the cities it also occurs in remote areas; "We only get an idea of what´s happening on the street trought the complaints that come to us. Children sell tissues, they beg at traffic lights, play music" said Constantinos Yianopoulos, president of the child´s smile charity, told Kathimerini. Yiannis Kouzis, assistant professor of labor relations at panteion. He also says "Child labour is more common in Greek coutry side". As the children are not allow to work until de age of 16 they are seen if they were working to help their families this happened specially in disadvantaged areas. Even now a lot of working children are unprotected in Greece. Greece recognizes that the staff of labour inspectorate is short, "it´s hard for them to get to remote areas, and so illegal child labour is rife in such places. The law is strict, but hard to enforce" sais Kouzis. Also what is recently happening in Greece is that people from other countries as Albania, Romania and Bulgaria because of the opening of their borders are bringing their families to Greece and are forcing their sons to work in the streets or to beg for money, "What we are seeing is fewer cases of trafficked children but more and more cases of families from Albania, and just recently more from Romania and Bulgaria because of beg" says Arsis director in Athens, Katerina Koutou. In 2006, Greece and Albania signed a double agreement whit the porpouse of protecting and assisting Albanian Children which have been trafficked into and to Greece as well of trying to solve the traffic of children in Albania. When the authorities see a case of child explotation they could send the parents to the court but the court just can give them a small fine which the families can pay only with the work of one day of their children; the court can not prosecute the parents.

Considering what I have explained in this position paper Greece is working fully aware to solve this problem. It have created laws and agreements with other countries to finishes with the explotation of children. I strongly believe that the biggest problem is that the staff of the Labour Inspectorate wich are the ones who can finish with this issue is very short and can not take action in most of the parts of Greece. They are laws stipulated but people break them out and is very dificult to enforce them. I think the solution of this problem is to improve the Labour Inspectorate and to heir more workers to do this job, a good solution would be to bring people from other countries wich didn´t have work because of the unemployment to work in Greece. At the moment Greece is suffering a huge crisis so maybe it doesn´t have the resources to heir more workers that´s why its allies which have more money could help Greece to achieved this recommendation. Also a big problem are the countries near Greece wich are affecting the erradiacation of this problem. Families from Countries like Albania are bringing their families to Greece and are putting their children to work. Maybe a solution to this problem is closing the frontiers but I think is very difficult to do that. Greece would be in seeking of other solutions

Biography:

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