Thousands of Cambodian Children Have Been Saved from Hard Labor – and Counting

Cambodia’s Ministry of Labor is on a mission to end child labor by 2025, and the Ministry of Economy and Finance is advancing the progress with a budget to help liberate at least 400 child workers a year.

“Over the past five years, some 30,000 Cambodian children had been saved from the most serious forms of hard labour, while 180,000 had been prevented from being used as child workers,” says Veng Heang, the director of the Ministry of Labor’s child labor department.

Increased job opportunities and helping people out of poverty has been key to preventing hard labor for children, as well as ensuring that parents and guardians lean against using child labor. Heang adds that employers have now been almost entirely avoiding using underage workers, ever since the implementation of increased inspections by local authorities.