WASHINGTON, United States -- Enforcement of child labor laws is weak across the globe due to lack of resources and corruption, a US Labor Department study said Wednesday.

"Enforcement efforts were chronically hindered by insufficient resources," the annual report to Congress said, warning that many children continue to be involved in "dangerous and demeaning work that robs them of their childhood and, often, their future."
"In many countries, child labor inspectors do not receive adequate training and are vulnerable to corruption due to low salaries," it said.

Despite that, in many of the 141 countries and territories reviewed in the report, "there is a broad array of efforts now underway to eliminate the worst forms of child labor," it said.

The efforts included governmental action to enforce national legislation and implement international commitments and action programs supported by international organizations and bilateral donors.

But the report underlined the "need for collaboration and pooling of expertise and resources."

The report cited Moldova, Panama, Philippines, Guinea, Dominican Republic and Liberia as among those which stepped up enforcement of child labor or undertook new initiatives.

Those which increased enforcement mechanisms, particularly in the area of trafficking, included Jamaica, Ghana, Bolivia, Guinea, Malawi and Sierra Leone.

A number of countries enacted new laws against child trafficking, including Bahrain, Cambodia, Cote d’Ivoire, the Gambia, Indonesia, and Madagascar, the report said.

"This report reveals that many governments are demonstrating the will to change children's lives, but it also makes clear that there is much more still to do to protect children around the world from exploitive child labor," said US Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao.

"While the report showed a decline in the incidence of child labor around the world, there are still millions of undocumented children working under hazardous and exploitive conditions," Peggy Abrahamson, spokeswoman for the US Department of Labor, told AFP.

Globally, there were an estimated 218 million child laborers aged between five and 17 years working in "exploitive situations," according to the International Labor Organization.

"Many of these children are forced to endure horrendous hardships because their survival depends on it and their families rely on their income," Abrahamson said.

The department does not rank or blacklist countries in the efforts to address the child labor problem, she said.