Home
Contact
Links
Search for members using our interactive map search
View our archive of documents and video clips...
Donate online now to the Scotland Malawi Partnership...
Channel 4: Malawi Child Tobacco Workers
It is still possible to watch Channel 4's 'Unreported World' documentary looking at child tobacco workers in Malawi, first aired on the 14th May 2010.
To watch the programme click HERE
Unreported World travels to Malawi to reveal that children as young as three are being illegally employed to produce tobacco, much of it destined to be consumed by British smokers.
Malawi's children suffer health problems from handling tobacco and some are trapped in bonded labour arrangements, leaving them unable to escape. Little seems to be being done to protect their health and wellbeing.
In Mchinji district, reporter Jenny Kleeman and producer Julie Noon find a group of 15 to 20 children sorting tobacco by the roadside. Emilida and her three children - including her three-year-old son - have been working there since dawn. She tells Kleeman the four of them will get about 80 pence for a day's work. The air is thick with tobacco dust and Emilida says it makes the family feel unwell.
A family of seven harvesting tobacco tell Kleeman they work every day from dawn to dusk. The children's hands are covered in a sticky brown residue and they say they suffer from severe headaches: a symptom of green tobacco sickness, or nicotine poisoning, where high doses of nicotine are absorbed through the skin. In other tobacco-growing countries like the US farmers are advised to wear protective clothing, but there is no sign of it anywhere the team visits.
Farges, the mother of the family, tells Kleeman the entire family takes home the equivalent of £18 a year. Her children must work so they can fulfil the daily quota of tobacco the farm owner has demanded of them. She says the farm owners claim they're not getting a fair price for tobacco at auction and can't pay them more. The family wants to escape tobacco farming, but they've been forced to borrow money from the land owner and can't leave until they work off their debt. The UN says this is bonded labour, a modern form of slavery.
The headmaster of a local primary school tells Kleeman a third of his class are absent, probably in the tobacco fields. He says most pupils fail their exams and can't go on to secondary school because they miss out on so much of their education to work with tobacco.
Noon and Kleeman investigate claims that some farm owners are trafficking children to work on larger estates. They meet Elisa, 13, Akimankhoma, 14, and Joseph, 17. Elisa says a farm owner came to her village to recruit child labourers, promising that her family would be paid for her work at the end of the season. The boys claim they were treated very badly on the estates: their supervisors shouted at them, withheld their food and beat them with sticks.
The team joins a group of charity workers and government officials who are trying to stop child labour. They find children sorting tobacco in a facility owned by a former MP. The District Labour Officer tells Kleeman the owner will definitely go to jail, but the team later discovers he has been let off with a caution. No one has ever been imprisoned in the district for employing children.
Malawi is one of the world's biggest tobacco producers. It relies on the crop for 65 per cent of its foreign income and its tobacco is bought by companies including British American Tobacco, Imperial Tobacco and Philip Morris.
Kleeman and Noon try to arrange an interview with the Minister of Labour to talk about their findings, but he fails to turn up to every appointment.
The tobacco companies say they cannot control the stages of production and supply and that they oppose bonded labour. They acknowledge the problem of child labour in Malawi say they have spent $6.6 million over eight years in projects to improve education, sanitation, health and crop planting that are keeping children in school. The projects run in only in two of Malawi's 28 districts.
Everything Unreported World has seen seems to show that poor, vulnerable and exposed Malawian children are bearing the costs of the tobacco industry's vast profits.
To watch the programme click HERE
Unreported World travels to Malawi to reveal that children as young as three are being illegally employed to produce tobacco, much of it destined to be consumed by British smokers.
Malawi's children suffer health problems from handling tobacco and some are trapped in bonded labour arrangements, leaving them unable to escape. Little seems to be being done to protect their health and wellbeing.
In Mchinji district, reporter Jenny Kleeman and producer Julie Noon find a group of 15 to 20 children sorting tobacco by the roadside. Emilida and her three children - including her three-year-old son - have been working there since dawn. She tells Kleeman the four of them will get about 80 pence for a day's work. The air is thick with tobacco dust and Emilida says it makes the family feel unwell.
A family of seven harvesting tobacco tell Kleeman they work every day from dawn to dusk. The children's hands are covered in a sticky brown residue and they say they suffer from severe headaches: a symptom of green tobacco sickness, or nicotine poisoning, where high doses of nicotine are absorbed through the skin. In other tobacco-growing countries like the US farmers are advised to wear protective clothing, but there is no sign of it anywhere the team visits.
Farges, the mother of the family, tells Kleeman the entire family takes home the equivalent of £18 a year. Her children must work so they can fulfil the daily quota of tobacco the farm owner has demanded of them. She says the farm owners claim they're not getting a fair price for tobacco at auction and can't pay them more. The family wants to escape tobacco farming, but they've been forced to borrow money from the land owner and can't leave until they work off their debt. The UN says this is bonded labour, a modern form of slavery.
The headmaster of a local primary school tells Kleeman a third of his class are absent, probably in the tobacco fields. He says most pupils fail their exams and can't go on to secondary school because they miss out on so much of their education to work with tobacco.
Noon and Kleeman investigate claims that some farm owners are trafficking children to work on larger estates. They meet Elisa, 13, Akimankhoma, 14, and Joseph, 17. Elisa says a farm owner came to her village to recruit child labourers, promising that her family would be paid for her work at the end of the season. The boys claim they were treated very badly on the estates: their supervisors shouted at them, withheld their food and beat them with sticks.
The team joins a group of charity workers and government officials who are trying to stop child labour. They find children sorting tobacco in a facility owned by a former MP. The District Labour Officer tells Kleeman the owner will definitely go to jail, but the team later discovers he has been let off with a caution. No one has ever been imprisoned in the district for employing children.
Malawi is one of the world's biggest tobacco producers. It relies on the crop for 65 per cent of its foreign income and its tobacco is bought by companies including British American Tobacco, Imperial Tobacco and Philip Morris.
Kleeman and Noon try to arrange an interview with the Minister of Labour to talk about their findings, but he fails to turn up to every appointment.
The tobacco companies say they cannot control the stages of production and supply and that they oppose bonded labour. They acknowledge the problem of child labour in Malawi say they have spent $6.6 million over eight years in projects to improve education, sanitation, health and crop planting that are keeping children in school. The projects run in only in two of Malawi's 28 districts.
Everything Unreported World has seen seems to show that poor, vulnerable and exposed Malawian children are bearing the costs of the tobacco industry's vast profits.
go back to the previous page