Philippine Children Risk Lives Mining Gold, Rights Group Says
- Government failing to stop exploitation: Human Rights Watch
- Kids as young as 9 risk suffocation, drowning, mercury vapor
An miner prepares to dive underwater in Santa Milagrosa, Philippines.
Photographer: Mark Z. Saludes for Human Rights WatchThis article is for subscribers only.
Thousands of child laborers as young as 9 years old are risking their lives diving and digging for gold in small-scale mines in the Philippines, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.
The children work in unstable 25-meter-deep pits, underwater, along the shore or in rivers, and process gold with mercury, a toxic metal, the New York-based rights group said in a 39-page report that documented the illegal practice in Camarines Norte and Masbate provinces in central Philippines.