Marking the World Day against Child Labour, Pope Francis condemned the exploitation of children in domestic work a “despicable growing phenomenon especially in poor countries.” “Greater action” is needed to tackle what the pontiff called a “plague.”
Addressing around 70,000 people who gathered at the St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican to listen to his weekly general audience, the Argentine pope said chil labour has reached worrying slave-like trends. Millions of under-age victims of a “hidden way of exploitation that involves frequently abuses and discrimination,” he insisted.
Global estimates by the International Labour Organization (ILO) warn that 14 million children in Latin America and the Caribbean are engaged in working activities that pose serious threats to their physical and psychological integrity.
Source: Buenos Aires Herald