The International Labor Organization (ILO) says almost 1.1 million children are engaged in hard labor in Afghanistan.

At a gathering in Kabul on the occasion of World Day Against Child Labor, ILO officials said that most of these children are between the ages of 5 and 17 and child labor in the country should be stopped.

“According to the latest survey, 1.06 million children between the ages of 5 and 17 have been working, which is 9 percent [of the population in that age group],” said Ramin Behzad, the Senior Coordinator for Afghanistan at the ILO.

Factors such as economic poverty, conflicts, crises and the COVID pandemic have forced millions of children to do hard labor around the world, but children in Afghanistan are more affected than any other country, ILO added.

“2020, we did an assessment and the figures were published in 2021. Since then, we have not conducted a general survey in Afghanistan to say more precisely whether this number increased or decreased; but we guess that the figures may have increased,” said another official of ILO.

Meanwhile, the officials from the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs said that the process of collecting and supporting working children continues in the country.

Humanitarian crisis driving children to work

Last month, Save the Children stated that about 6.5 million children in Afghanistan – or nearly three out of ten – will face crisis or emergency levels of hunger this year as the country feels the immediate impacts of floods, the long term effects of drought and the return of Afghans from Pakistan and Iran.

New figures from the global hunger monitoring body, the IPC forecast that 28% of the population – or about 12.4 million people – will face acute food insecurity before October. Of those, nearly 2.4 million are predicted to experience emergency levels of hunger, which is one level below famine.

The figures show a slight improvement from the last report in October 2023, but underline the continuing need for assistance, with poverty affecting one in two Afghans.

An estimated 2.9 million children under the age of five are projected to suffer from acute malnutrition in 2024 . Since the start of 2024, Save the Children’s health teams and clinics in Afghanistan have treated more than 7,000 children for malnutrition, among them 11 year old Firoz who lives in Northern Afghanistan with his 10 brothers and sisters.

His father is a farmer, but the 3-year-long drought has forced him to take on other work to support the family.

One doctor who works for a Save the Children health team in Northern Afghanistan said people are facing serious financial problems.

“From an agricultural standpoint, they have land but don’t have water or adequate land for farming – they are jobless. These things affect children. When children are affected, they may not be able to go to school or may become busy working to find food for their homes. They become deprived of their rights or become ill and malnourished. All these problems are affecting children.”

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