‘I have to help buy canada goose jacket cheap my family’

The boy took a deep breath before lifting up two bags full of red bricks, balancing the load on his shoulders. The sun burned his bare feet as he walked through the refugee camp, his back hunched under the weight.

A 10 year old Rohingya, Mohammed has been working non stop for the past two weeks, helping his struggling family earn a living in the world’s canada goose uk shop fastest growing refugee camp.

Leaving their former lives in Myanmar’s Rakhine State to set up homes in the teeming camps of southern Bangladesh cost the family hundreds of dollars money that must now be recouped, one brick at a time.

«We had to pay for the boat ride to Bangladesh and the material to build a house here,» Mohammed told IRIN as he set about earning his day’s wages about $0.04 a brick. «I’m helping my canada goose outlet in usa parents earn money.»

There is a severe shortage of safe spaces for kids in canada goose outlet canada the camps, more than two months after a new wave of violence in Rakhine began canada goose outlet uk sale pushing more than 600,000 Rohingya across the border. With desperate Rohingya families like Mohammed’s arriving with nothing, advocates say children are at high risk of exploitation and abuse.

«It’s a child protection disaster waiting to happen,» said Helle Thorning Schmidt, who cheap Canada Goose heads Save the Children.

Safe spaces

While official data and numbers of Rohingya child labourers have yet to be collected, experts worry the situation could get out of hand. canada goose outlet sale More than half the new arrivals are children.

Yousuf Ali, who works with local non profit YPSA, said it’s clear many children have already started working. Most are employed by cheap canada goose Bangladeshi businesses and earn the equivalent of between $1.20 and $1.80 a day.

«Most families are open to having their children canada goose Canada Goose sale outlet online uk employed, as they have no other means to survive,» Ali said.

Conditions in the refugee camps are chaotic. Heavy rain continues canada goose outlet to turn the area into deep mud fields and official canada goose outlet families are scrambling to establish a living. An army of aid groups and volunteers has rushed in canada goose outlet store uk to help, but the sheer numbers are immense.

Families say it costs $120 to buy bamboo and plastic sheeting from local vendors a significant portion of canada goose outlet toronto factory their savings. Aid groupsestimate more than 400,000 children, including girls and boys who arrived before the latest wave of refugees, can’t access schools or other learning places.

With so few safe spots for children, it raises real risks of trafficking and child labour, said Torgeir Lind, an expert on psychosocial support with the Norwegian Red Cross.

«The needs in the camps are huge,» Lind said. «There are lots canadian goose jacket of children, but not enough schooling. That means that there are no daytime activities for children.»

The supply chain

Child labour is a problem in refugee emergencies around the world, as it often canada goose jacket outlet is inhost communities.

A study in Jordan’s Za’atari refugee camp, for example,estimated13.3 percent of children aged seven to 17 were working.

«If this is the overarching situation around the world, then we need to look at the Rohingya camps,» said Sheema Sen Gupta, UNICEF’s deputy representative in Bangladesh.

«Families arrive here with nothing. What happens once they have pitched their tents? They have a meal a day or don’t eat for days. Instead of sitting around, children go and find work.»

Gupta said Canada Goose Parka it’s repeatedly host communities that exploit children. Often, they don’t look at it as a form of exploitation, cheap canada goose uk but see children as part of the available workforce.

Kashan, a local Bangladeshi who didn’t want to share his full name, owns several ice cream businesses in the Rohingya camps. Weeks ago he quit his job as canada goose factory outlet a construction canada goose clearance worker, realising that the refugee influx provided an opportunity to make easy money. Through a fixer, he finds and hires children to sell ice cream throughout the camps. The children work goose outlet canada for six hours and are paid about $1.80 a day, he said.

«It’s good money for them,» Kashan told IRIN. «Many of them have never been to school and even worked when they still lived in Myanmar. I’m helping them earn a living.»

Eleven year old Hamidul was hired by Kashan. The child walks for hours through the hot and muggy camp to sell ice cream.

«It’s tiring, but I have to help my family,» Hamidul said. «We had to borrow a lot of money to come here and https://www.naslsoccerbowl.com we are trying to pay it back.»

Hamidul said he has two younger sisters who stay at home to help in the household.

«None of us go to school,» he said.

In a rapidly evolving environment, aid agencies have to be careful their own resources aren’t used for child labour through local supply chains or subcontractors.

«There is always a fear that NGOs and aid agencies use these services,» Gupta said. «We raise awareness and tell business owners that it can’t be done. We also assess where to buy supplies and where exactly they are coming from.»

Peter Meyer, team leader for theInternational Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societiesin Bangladesh, said staff members visit contractors and work sites every morning.