Lebanon's forgotten children

0 Comments | AFP, February, 2008

TRIPOLI, Lebanon (AFP) — It is early morning and eight-year-old Ibrahim Khodar Arja is already hard at work, his face and hands covered with dirt as he repairs a car at the mechanics shop where he works six days a week, 10 hours a day.

Ibrahim should be at primary school but his job leaves him no time for that.

Like thousands of children across Lebanon he has joined a growing force of child labourers whose fate is as much dictated by their family's dire economic situation as by the country's turbulent politics.

Officials estimate that at least 100,000 children, or one in 10 up to 18 years of age, work in Lebanon, mainly in the agriculture sector or as mechanics as well as in jewelery workshops and sweatshops.

"The 10 to 15 age group is the most...