Industries all around the world are working children in order to get people clothes on their backs and food on their tables. In 2020, the International Labor Organization reported around 160 million children in employment around the world. Each of these children engage in work that is harmful and detrimental to their health, growth and success.

Since the 1990s, fast fashion has promoted a “race to the bottom,” pushing companies to find increasingly cheaper sources of labor. Free and cheap labor is found in countries where textile and garment production takes place. This has been a constant problem around the world, but many people have turned a blind eye to the situation.

People are beginning to see child labor law obstruction in the United States, which makes them concerned and appalled at conditions that have been going on for years in other countries. Since child labor is being manipulated in the U.S., people of power are just now beginning to care.

But what about the children who have suffered for years in India, Bangladesh and China working to make the cheap t-shirts we buy from Zara and Forever 21?

In many countries, child labor is seen as a rite of passage, not a threat to children’s lives. A report by the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations and the India Committee of the Netherlands revealed that recruiters in southern India convince impoverished parents to send their daughters to spinning mills. These recruiters promise families a well-paid job, comfortable accommodations, three meals a day and opportunity for schooling and training. When in all actuality, these children are working in dangerous conditions with little to no pay.

Wherever there is extreme poverty, there will be child labor. Children are not only easy to lead, they are also easy to manipulate, which is why corporations depend on them as workers. If children grow up believing they should be the ones supporting their families, then they will be tricked into dangerous and badly paid work.

People pick and choose which children are allowed to suffer through 14-hour workdays and life-threatening environments. Child labor occurring in other countries like Egypt and Thailand receive no attention or reform.

Out of sight out of mind, right? No.

A 2023 Washington Post article reveals child labor in Nebraska. Each evening a father drives his daughter to work at a job that “burned and blistered her skin.” After an investigation of Packers Sanitation Service, 102 children ages 13-17 were found working illegally. Now each of these families risk jail time and deportation.

There is a growing wave of child workers being illegally hired to fill jobs in the most dangerous industries. However, the industries who hire these children without proper identification and proof of age face no consequences. Migrant children and families suffer from potential deportation and child-abuse charges even though the industries are the ones who manipulated desperate people in poverty.

Migrant children working in these dangerous industries are not old enough to drive – however, they face punishment because of their vulnerability. In 2022, 3,876 children were employed in violation of U.S. labor laws, and those are just the confirmed cases found by the Labor Department. Unfortunately, this number does not account for the total amount of minors employed illegally in the U.S.

The industries employing children need to be punished and held accountable. The children who are working multiple hours at a life-threatening job are suffering from stricter repercussions than the businesses who hired them.

Child labor is primarily concentrated in industries like agriculture, service and the industrial sector. Out of the 260 million children who are subjected to child labor, 10.7 million are in the Americas. It’s easy to ignore child labor when it’s presented in another country – which is why attention to this issue is sparse – but any child labor is corrupt labor.

Conservatives have been known to argue migrants are taking jobs from hard working U.S. citizens, but these jobs worked by migrant children are jobs Americans would not want anyway. The economy depends on migrant child workers because they work a long time for little money. But industries can no longer build their companies off the backs of impoverished families and young children.

Chloe Robertson is a guest columnist. Contact her at [email protected].