My dream is to become a doctor
Aminatou, a 13-year-old Central African refugee, works about 8 hours a day in the gold mines in Yassa, a village located about 30 kilometers from Garoua Boulaï, in the East Region of Cameroon.
She’s been doing this job since she was 7 and has never been to school all her life because her parents can’t afford to send her to school.
Her parents fled the war in the Central African Republic and have been refugees in Cameroon for 10 years.
Aminatou’s parents tried selling firewood in order to survive but the business was unprofitable and could not support the family of 11 children. This is why they embarked on the search for gold, in artisanal mining, putting their health at risk for miserable wages.
The work Aminatou does in the gold mines earns her family an average of 2000 FCA per week.
When Aminatou is asked about her ambitions, she responds with a smile: “My dream is to become a doctor”.
In fact, her future looks like that of thousands of young Central African refugee girls, who for lack of means, cannot go to school. They now work in the gold mines. By the time they turn 15, they are usually victims of early marriage.
In addition to working in the mines, refugee children in the eastern region are subjected to rural activities, trading and begging.
The Republic of Cameroon signed and endorsed the ILO Convention 138 on the Minimum Age of Labor as well as the Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labor both entering into force respectively on 13 August 2001 and 05 June 2002. The minimum age specified is 14 years.
A Global Action Programme (GAP) on Child Labor funded by the USA took place from 30 September 2011–31 March 2017 improving the policy framework to protect children from the worst forms of child labor including domestic labor.
Meanwhile, UNICEF, while the MICS 2014 stated that 47% of children 5 to 17 years were subjected to child labor, remains concerned by the fact that children continue to drop out of school or are not going to school at all and are taking part in child labor. In the East, North and Adamawa regions, children are affected by the worst forms of child labor while working in and around artisanal gold mining sites. Unfortunately, accurate data are not available to demonstrate the scope of that phenomenon.
In 2014, the Government drew up a National Action Plan for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor in Cameroon, the implementation of which is hampered by the insufficient mobilization of resources. In the same way, the situation of children in urban settings is worrying with children subjected to small businesses, domestic labor, trafficking and sexual exploitation.
