Children in Burma are subjected to the worst forms of child labor, including forced recruitment of children for use in armed conflict and commercial sexual exploitation, sometimes as a result of human trafficking. (1, 2) Table 1 provides key indicators on children's work and education in Burma.

Source for primary completion rate: Data from 2018, published by UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2021. (3)
Source for all other data: International Labor Organization's analysis of statistics from Labour Force Survey (LFS), 2019. (4)

These data are not comparable with data presented in last year's report due to changes in survey source, survey questionnaire, or age range surveyed. (4)

Based on a review of available information, Table 2 provides an overview of children's work by sector and activity.

‡ Child labor understood as the worst forms of child labor per se under Article 3(a)–(c) of ILO C. 182.

The national military's "self-reliance" policy, which requires military forces to provide their own food and labor from local communities, has led to some units, reportedly including the Border Guard Police, to use civilians, including children, to porter goods, cook, and clean barracks in conflict areas. (2,8,29-30) During the reporting period, research indicated that children continued to work in these types of support roles, including 700 children forced into service by low-ranking national military officials in Rakhine State. (2,8,28-31,32)

In 2020, research indicated that children continued to be used by the national military in non-combat roles. In October, two boys in Rakhine Province were reportedly killed in crossfire after being forced by the national military to walk in front to ensure the path was clear of landmines and to act as human shields for soldiers. (2,8,12,28,31,30,33,34) Though there was no identified pattern of recruitment for combat roles, the UN Country Task Force for Monitoring and Reporting (CTFMR) on Grave Violations Against Children identified two cases of recruitment and use for combat roles of children under the age of 18 in the Burmese national military. (35) In the past, civilian brokers with military connections have sometimes facilitated entry into the military of underage recruits, in some instances bypassing standard age verification procedures by producing sophisticated counterfeit identity documents. (8,11,29,31,30)

As of June 2020, there were 145 suspected minors for whom age verification was pending. (8,27,31,35) However, the national military continued to adhere to the established 2019 principle of the "benefit of the doubt,"—which states that when the age of a recruit cannot be definitively verified, the person is discharged—and released at least 22 individuals whose ages could not be definitively verified. As of April 2020, 1,006 children had been released from the national military in accordance with the 2012 Joint Action Plan with the UN which aims to end all government recruitment and use of children in its national military. (11,31,36-38) Since the CTFMR was signed in 2012, the military has prosecuted and convicted 65 commissioned and non-commissioned officers for the recruitment of children into the national military. (27,31,37)

Children were also forcibly recruited and used in armed conflict by non-state armed groups, including the Kachin Independence Organization, Democratic en Benevolent Army (DKBA), the Karen National Liberation Army, the Shan State Progress Party/Shan State Army, the Ta'ang National Liberation Army, and the United Wa State Army. (27,30,32,35) The DKBA signed a joint action plan to end recruitment and use of children in armed conflict with the UN CTFMR in November 2020. (39)

Research found that Burmese girls were trafficked to Burma's border with China for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation. (9,29,30,32) A common trend in Burma is the recruitment of young women, including girls, under the false pretense of getting a high-paying job in China only to be sold into forced marriages with related violations of sexual and labor exploitation. (11,29,31)

The Ministry of Labor, Immigration, and Population (MOLIP) collected data for a survey in 2019 to help develop and establish a database that accurately reflects the current size and composition of the labor force in Burma—including information on child labor—but it has yet to be published. (9,40,41)

Since August 2017, an estimated 728,000 people, primarily from the Rohingya minority, have fled from Burma to Bangladesh following acts of violence and ethnic cleansing perpetuated by the military in northern Rakhine State. (2,42-46) As a result, an estimated 51 percent of Rohingya refugees—approximately 438,000 of whom are children—live in refugee camps in Bangladesh at sites in which they lack access to education, making them vulnerable to the worst forms of child labor. (9,11,43,47-50) Rohingya girls are trafficked from refugee camps, in some cases being promised jobs in domestic work, for commercial sexual exploitation in Bangladesh, India, and Nepal. (2,24,51) Research also found that increasing numbers of children, particularly girls, are leaving refugee and IDP camps to immigrate to countries such as Malaysia for marriages, but often find themselves in situations of forced labor, including domestic work, sometimes as a result of human trafficking. (24,29,45,52-54) Rohingya children recruited to work outside the refugee camps, such as in shops, fishing, and transportation, are reported to be underpaid or unpaid, unable to communicate with their families, and subjected to excessive working hours. (52)

Approximately 130,000 Rohingya were forced to reside in IDP camps in Rakhine State after being internally displaced by ethnic violence within the State. Rohingya children residing in IDP camps are at an increased risk of the worst forms of child labor, including forced labor and sex trafficking, due to lack of schools particularly in IDP camps, movement restrictions, discriminatory policies and practices, and school closures due to ongoing violence, especially in Muslim villages. (8,29,30,43,45,55-57)

Rohingya children throughout Rakhine State continue to face severe restrictions on attending school due to discriminatory government policies and practices adopted following the 2012 riots and violent clashes between ethnic Rakhine and Rohingya communities. (58) Local officials and school authorities typically ban Rohingya children from attending government schools with ethnic Rakhine children. (58,59) In addition, Burmese law guarantees education only for Burmese citizens, and citizenship rates in Rohingya communities are extremely low. (55) Many Rohingya children also lack the documentation that is required to attend middle schools and high schools in Rakhine State because the government denies them citizenship or officials refuse to register their household residency. (9,28,60,61) While the government touted its citizenship processing campaigns, such campaigns are scarce and there has only been one in Rakhine State since 2017. (39) Since 2018, the government has forced over 13,000 Rohingya to accept National Verification Cards (NVC) in Rakhine State, including over 500 children; the NVC is required to begin the process of applying for citizenship and requires Rohingya to accept a concession of foreignness. Of the few Rohingya who do obtain citizenship, they are rarely granted full citizenship; they are instead relegated to naturalized citizenship and are not afforded full rights like those granted to full citizens. (2,28,30,55,62)

Furthermore, schools in Rohingya villages impacted by the violence that occurred in 2017 have not reopened, and it is expected that dozens of schools for ethnic Rakhine children will remain closed due to continued fighting between the national military and non-state armed groups in the area, which, in 2020, has displaced an additional 70,000—mostly ethnic Rakhine—into IDP camps. (55,63)

In addition to Rakhine State, children throughout Burma face barriers to education, such as costs associated with travel to schools located long distances away (especially when located in a different township than their own), a lack of schools and teachers, and expenses that include uniforms, books, transportation, and "extra fees" charged by teachers and schools. This leads many children to discontinue their studies after primary school, and increasing their vulnerability to the worst forms of child labor. (1,21,24,30,32,64) Refugee children and children from ethnic communities who speak different languages often face barriers in schools because the curriculum is taught in Burmese, despite there being no law explicitly requiring Burmese language instruction. (9,24,30,32) To address this specific issue, the Ministry of Education was working on an equivalency program that will allow students to sit for exams in their native tongue. (9)

Burma has ratified all key international conventions concerning child labor (Table 3).

On June 8, 2020, the government ratified ILO C.138, becoming the 173rd ILO member state to ratify. (29,32,65,66)

The government has established laws and regulations related to child labor (Table 4). However, gaps exist in Burma's legal framework to adequately protect children from the worst forms of child labor, including criminally prohibiting child trafficking consistent with international standards and comprehensively identifying the types of hazardous work prohibited for children.

* No conscription (77)
‡ Age calculated based on available information (78,79)

During the reporting period, MOLIP prepared a draft hazardous work list and worked to finalize the implementing regulation for the Child Rights Law (2019), but both have yet to be promulgated. (9,11,29,32,34,61,69) In addition, two 2019 draft laws dealing with child labor issues in domestic work and the Occupational Safety and Health Bill, which seeks to expand the legal jurisdiction of the labor inspectorate to include additional industries, remained pending in 2020. (9,11,24,40,80-82)

Furthermore, the draft anti-trafficking in persons law, which will remove the requirement to demonstrate force, fraud, or coercion to constitute a child trafficking offense and allow for assets and proceeds found during trafficking in person cases to be seized, was still awaiting approval as of December 2020. (8,11,29,32,83) The implementing regulations for this bill are currently being drafted by the Ministry of Home Affairs. (39)

The legal framework does not sufficiently prohibit the use of children in illicit activities, as there are no criminal penalties associated with the use, procuring, and offering of a child for the production and trafficking of drugs. (12,69,74)

Children in Burma are required to attend school only up to age 10. This standard leaves children ages 10 through 13 vulnerable to child labor since they are not required to attend school but are not legally permitted to work. (30,78,79)

The government has established institutional mechanisms for the enforcement of laws and regulations on child labor (Table 5). However, gaps exist within the operations of enforcement agencies that may hinder adequate enforcement of their child labor laws.

During the reporting period, the Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunications worked with mobile phone operators to send quarterly text messages to all subscribers that included information related to trafficking in persons (TIP) awareness, including the anti-trafficking in persons hotline phone numbers. (29)

The Department of Social Welfare leads efforts on repatriation, reintegration, and rehabilitation of TIP victims, and continued to lack a sufficient number of case managers to cover the entire country. There continued to be instances of delays in offering case management services, and the Department of Rehabilitation lacked sufficient human resources to provide reintegration support. (9,11,29,31)

During the reporting period, the Myanmar Police Force (MPF) remained hampered by personnel turnover, resource constraints, and limited training, which resulted in areas of the country continuing to lack sufficient coverage. (9,8,11,29) Furthermore, MPF was limited in conducting normal police operations from April–August 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions on the number of people who could be in the office. (29) Non-specialized police were sometimes unaware of how to pursue human trafficking investigations without the assistance of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Division's (ATIPD) Anti-Trafficking Task Force units, possibly resulting in some trafficking victims being turned away when attempting to report their cases. (8,29)

Labor Law Enforcement

In 2020, labor law enforcement agencies in Burma took actions to combat child labor (Table 6). However, gaps exist within the operations of the Factories and General Labor Laws Inspection Department (FGLLID) that may hinder adequate enforcement of their child labor laws, including inspection planning.

In 2020, trainings for labor inspectors were halted and the number of labor inspections conducted declined sharply due to pandemic-related movement restrictions put in place by the government. Due to these restrictions, labor inspections were geographically limited to Burma's major urban centers, including Yangon, Mandalay, and Bago, and the FGLLID claimed that they did not uncover any child labor during their inspections in 2020. (32) However, in November, a bakery factory owner was charged with "violating the rights of children," after at least 18 children were alleged to have been in situations of forced child labor; prosecution was ongoing during the reporting period. (32,89)

Despite labor inspectors having the authority to conduct unannounced inspections, these do not occur regularly; when they do occur, factory owners are often given advanced notice, and labor inspectors often neglect to speak with workers. (2, 9,32)

Research found that funding for the labor inspectorate is insufficient to cover transportation and equipment for labor inspectors, which discourages inspections of remote establishments. Furthermore, when a complaint is filed by a worker, inspections often are not conducted in a timely manner. (9,32) Research also indicated that when FGLLID imposes penalties on violators, the fines are too low to act as a deterrent to medium and large enterprises. (32) Due to capacity and resource constraints, FGLLID has limited data on its own labor market, including the number of factories, and a lack of basic resources such as furniture for labor inspector offices. (9)

The number of labor inspectors is likely insufficient for the size of Burma’s workforce, which includes approximately 22 million workers. According to the ILO’s technical advice of a ratio approaching 1 inspector for every 40,000 workers in less developed economies, Burma would employ about 558 inspectors. (32,77,90,91)

The government did not provide information on its labor inspectorate funding.

Criminal Law Enforcement

In 2020, criminal law enforcement agencies in Burma took actions to combat the worst forms of child labor (Table 7). However, gaps exist within the authority of MPF that may hinder adequate enforcement of their child labor laws, including penalties not commiserate with the seriousness of certain crimes.

In February, a group of mid-level civilian and military officers attended a course on how to facilitate increasing transparency of anti-trafficking in persons efforts made by the government; this effort resulted in the government providing monthly trafficking in persons data to foreign embassies and international organizations located in Burma. (29,92) The government also trained 60 diplomats and 35 attaches on human trafficking issues. (8)

In 2020, the ATIPD reported two cases of government complicity in the worst forms of child labor. In one case, a commissioned military officer was court-martialed and faces civilian charges for trafficking a young girl into China where she experienced sex and labor exploitation. (29) In the second case, a village leader faces charges for attempting to traffic a young girl to China for forced marriage. Both cases remain under active investigation and prosecution. (29) Also during the reporting period, a 2019 case involving a commissioned military officer and eight civilians who trafficked a young girl to China culminated in the court-martial and conviction of the officer and two of the co-conspirators. All three of the convicted individuals, including the military officer, were sentenced to 10 years in prison. (29) In addition, the case of a karaoke club and bar owner charged with human trafficking after allegedly forcing a child into commercial sexual exploitation remains under active prosecution. (29,92)

While the government continued training its personnel on age verification at recruitment centers, insufficient identity document access and security issues continued to present challenges to the full prevention of the recruitment of children. (2,31,84) While the national military has taken action against national military officials for these crimes, the penalties imposed on members of the military for recruiting and using child soldiers are not commensurate with the seriousness of these crimes. (2,8,12,31) In past years, most of these cases reportedly culminated in reprimands, demotions, relocations, fines, or decreases in pensions, penalties significantly less than those prescribed by criminal law, which mandates prison sentences. (2,8,9,30,93)

Research noted that some government and law enforcement officials allegedly participated in, facilitated, or profited from human trafficking. This included police officers and other government officials accepting bribes, and in some cases, individuals claiming to have ties to high-level officials purportedly pressuring victims not to seek legal redress against their traffickers. (8,29)

The government did not provide information on the number of investigations conducted, the number of prosecutions initiated, and the number of convictions related to child labor during the reporting period.

The government has established mechanisms to coordinate its efforts to address child labor (Table 8). However, gaps exist that hinder the effective coordination of efforts to address child labor, including coordination among agencies.

* Mechanism to coordinate efforts to address child labor was created during the reporting period.

During the reporting period, the government virtually attended the Coordinate Mekong Ministerial Initiative against Trafficking (COMMIT) Regional Task Force and the 14th Annual Senior Official Meetings hosted by the Government of Vietnam. Senior Burmese government officials, including the Commander of ATIPD, participated and discussed national and transnational referral mechanisms, reviewed the COMMIT Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), and extended the Sub-Regional Plan of Action into 2022. (29) In addition, the government attended a virtual meeting with ASEAN counterparts and the Australian government to discuss countering trafficking in person in the Asia-Pacific region. In December, the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Rehabilitation (MSWRR) hosted the 25th Burma-Thailand Case Management Virtual Meeting on Return and Reintegration of TIP victims with their counterparts from Thailand’s Ministry of Social Development and Human Security. (29)

Research indicates that the government continues to be hampered by limited inter-ministerial coordination, including communication, across all government ministries. (11)

The government has established policies related to child labor (Table 9). However, policy gaps exist that hinder efforts to address child labor, including the adoption of policies that address all relevant worst forms of child labor.

† Policy was approved during the reporting period.

During the reporting period, the government officially signed an MOU with the Government of India on Cooperation for Prevention of Trafficking in Persons: Rescue, Recovery, Repatriation, and Re-Integration of Victims of Trafficking. (9,11,29,32,40) Both governments continue to actively work to develop working groups and task forces to prevent TIP crimes, share information on TIP crimes, and enhance cooperation on investigations and prosecutions while also protecting victim information. (29) The government also continued discussions with the Government of Vietnam on establishing a new MOU that would address anti-trafficking in persons measures. (29)

During the reporting period, the Ministry of Defense issued three directives prohibiting the use and recruitment of child soldiers by the national military. (29,30,32) The first directive ordered adherence to all previously released directives to not recruit children under the age of 18 or use underage labor in military-owned factories, shops, and establishments. (29,32,103) The second directive outlined the prohibitions and punishments associated with the use and recruitment of children into the national military for both combat and non-combat roles, and the third directive ordered that national military personnel follow the National Action Plan on Preventing Grievous Injuries and Sexual Abuse of Children in Armed Conflicts (2020–2021). (29,104,105)

Although the government has adopted a policy to end the national military’s recruitment and use of child soldiers and a policy on hazardous child labor, research found no evidence of a policy on other worst forms of child labor, including armed conflict by non-state armed groups, forced child labor, or commercial sexual exploitation of children. (31)

In 2020, the government funded and participated in programs that include the goal of eliminating or preventing child labor (Table 10). However, gaps exist in these social programs, including the adequacy of programs to address all worst forms of child labor.

*Program was launched during the reporting period.

In 2020, the government implemented a permanent National Complaints Mechanism for Forced Labor (NCM), replacing the ILO-managed Forced Labor Complaints Mechanism that lapsed in 2018. During the reporting period, ILO continued to receive and forward child labor complaints to the NCM, but research found that there was no mechanism in place for the ILO to follow up on cases it referred to the NCM. (9,11,29,30,31,40,44,98,112) Additionally, research was unable to determine whether the mechanism was being adequately implemented due to the government's failure to communicate important developments to applicable stakeholders related to the NCM, including publishing NCM data online through MOLIP's website. (29,92,98)

During the reporting period, the MSWRR developed and implemented a standard operating procedure (SOP) for local-level victim support and rehabilitation, which provides provisions for the rehabilitation and reintegration of former child soldiers, and is in the process of creating a national-level SOP on child protection. (98) However, research found that due to a lack of resources and understanding of victim reintegration, and the decentralization of responsibility to state and regional governments, the protection of victims and the ability to adequately combat forced labor remain unaddressed and unclear. (30,32,113)

Overall, the government lacks sufficient social programs to adequately address the worst forms of child labor, including forced child labor and the commercial sexual exploitation of children. (31,32)

Based on the reporting above, suggested actions are identified that would advance the elimination of child labor in Burma (Table 11).

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