Malawi, the exploitation of minors in tobacco plantations: thousands of “invisible” children but also adults, mostly women

ROME – Despite Malawi’s government last year amending the law on land leases, a kind of sharecropping that has long been accused of being the main cause of child labour, the exploitation of children in the country’s tobacco fields continues to be rampant. The plantations are usually located in remote, inaccessible areas, away from everything and everyone, where it is therefore easier for rights abuses to go unnoticed and go unpunished. Prevention in these places is also more difficult, even for the authorities themselves. The report speaks of three thousand children still exploited in the fields and over seven thousand adults, mostly women, whose work was defined by the delegates as “invisible”, because it is particularly exposed to discrimination and violence.

The accusations. According to the thirteen United Nations experts, it is precisely the difficulty of accessing the plantations that fuels the exploitation of child labour, which then brings with it another social scourge: school dropout. Problem that has become even more acute with the pandemic. The data reported by the UN dossier speak of four hundred thousand children who have never returned to school since the outbreak of COVID-19.

Tobacco as a source of income. It is the most used crop in the country. Proceeds from tobacco sales account for thirteen percent of the country’s GDP and sixty percent of commercial sales. But something happened in 2019 that marked a before and after. In 2019, the United States, when allegations against the country of child exploitation became reality, decided to suspend tobacco imports from Malawi. At that point the President, Lazarus Chakwera, having lost one of the most important commercial partners, was forced to change theEmployment Act which legalized the lease system and therefore exploitation.

The land lease. Under Malawi’s tenancy system, landowners recruited farmers from more remote areas to grow tobacco on their estates. Tenants were offered monthly accommodation, food rations, and a small share of sales. But several reports over the years have shown how this system benefited landowners and investors and left farmers below the poverty line. A study conducted in 2015 by the Center for Social Concern explains how farmers provide the greatest contribution, in terms of manpower, to tobacco production, but receive very low returns in exchange and are often forced to accept agreements that are very close to exploitation.

Government actions. The country has launched a series of necessary measures to counter the work of children in the fields. The most important of this is the National Social Cash Transfer Program, which aims to support low-income families living in the areas most at risk, i.e. the most remote ones, so that they leave their children at school and do not have the temptation to take them to the fields. Labor Minister Vera Kamtukule told the magazine Voice of America that the government has set 2025 as the deadline for the elimination of child labour. Already in recent years it has put in place a series of important initiatives, such as enrolling all the children who have been removed from the fields in school, with figures indicating a gradual improvement: 528 children in 2022 compared to 173 in 2021.

The assessment of the UN experts. But for the United Nations these efforts are not yet sufficient to counter the scourge of the exploitation of the little ones. According to the UN envoys, the government of Malawi must deploy all possible resources. This means allowing inspectors access to all fields where companies are allowed to operate. And it also means involving the police forces by arranging greater controls, because child labor also exists due to another, equally heinous crime: trafficking in human beings.

Companies operating in the country. Large companies work in the tobacco industry in Malawi, mostly Western ones: British American Tobacco, Imperial, Philip Morris International, Japan Tobacco Group, to which the UN experts in charge of investigating the phenomenon have asked to intensify controls and the monitoring of all stages of tobacco procurement.