ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - An estimated 6,000 children under the age of 14 are working on the streets of Iraq, a labor ministry official told Rudaw on Wednesday.
Despite the alarming figure, Hassan Khawam, spokesperson for Iraq's labor ministry, noted that the data is neither precise nor up to date, indicating that the actual figure may well be higher.
“We have a limited number of inspectors tasked with visiting workplaces and construction sites. They have not yet been able to collect an accurate figure,” he said.
Khawam emphasized that most child labor cases involve children from low-income families and added that the ministry has been working to limit the phenomenon.
Iraqi law prohibits employment of children aged 15 and under.
According to the ministry, around 3.7 million children belong to 2.1 million impoverished families. To prevent them from turning to street labor to make ends meet, the Iraqi government provides social support to these families in an effort to "minimize the phenomenon."
The government also offers a monthly stipend to students, ranging from 50,000 to 150,000 Iraqi dinars (around $38 to $114), depending on the level of education - from primary school to university.
"Thanks to these allowances, around 123,000 children who had dropped out of school have returned to the classroom," Khawam said. In addition, families receive food aid through ration cards distributed by the trade ministry.
He stressed that the government has "prohibited child labor in every shape and form."
“Our inspectors who visit workplaces and projects refer any underage workers to the labor court. Their employers are then penalized,” Khawam added.
The labor ministry says the Iraqi government spends roughly 470 billion Iraqi dinars (about $359 million) each month on social welfare and protection payments. The 2024 federal budget allocated approximately 6.2 trillion dinars (around $4.7 billion) for these welfare programs.
Despite legal prohibitions and government support efforts, child labor remains widespread in both Iraq and the Kurdistan Region. Children can often be seen working in markets, bakeries, and at traffic intersections - doing odd jobs or selling goods for small sums of money.
June 1st is marked as International Children’s Day in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region. The occasion was first established in 1925 during the World Conference on Child Welfare.
Globally, over 200 million children between the ages of 6 and 17 are engaged in labor. Data from the Strategic Center for Human Rights in Iraq ranks Iraq fourth in the world for child labor prevalence.
