Labor Day 2024 Statement

This Labor Day, the Association for the Rights of Children in Southeast Asia (ARCSEA) calls for comprehensive reforms addressing labor and migration issues in Southeast Asia, particularly acknowledging their disproportionate impact on vulnerable children amidst escalating living costs and enduring economic issues. Essential to this is advocating for higher wages, decent employment, and improved social support.

Despite the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child affirming every child’s entitlement to a standard of living conducive to their physical, mental, spiritual, moral, and social development, this right remains unfulfilled for many children in Southeast Asia. The region continues to grapple with the problem of child labor. Approximately 48.7 million are children engaged in such work across the Asia Pacific region, according to 2020 UNICEF data. Child labor is notably prevalent in remote rural areas, driven by poverty and a lack of decent work opportunities for their parents, often depriving children of their right to education.

Moreover, limited employment prospects drive migration, significantly affecting the well-being of children left behind by parents seeking better opportunities. With an estimated 23.6 million Southeast Asian migrants residing outside their home countries, particularly significant is the Philippines, contributing over six million emigrants and ranking ninth globally (UN DESA, 2020). Driven by varying poverty rates among ASEAN Member States, migration patterns highlight the disparity, with limited income and high unemployment fueling internal migration to industrialized urban areas.

We join unions, labor organizations and the workers of the world in calling for concerted efforts to increase minimum wage, create decent employment opportunities, and mitigate the impact of migration on children left behind, to ensure the holistic development of every child.