Street vendor fears tackled

The International Labour Organisation (I.L.O) is serious about helping Samoa address growing fears about street vendors.

Its National Coordinator in Samoa, Tomasi Peni, says law reform would be a good first step for dealing with Samoa’s growing child street vendor problem.

It comes as a growing number of young people in Samoa are exposed to a variety of dangerous activities – including the case of a 17-year-old girl identified by the I.L.O, becoming a sex worker.

According to Mr. Peni, there is currently no specific legislation stopping child vendors from working at night time in Samoa, with existing legislature only preventing it during school hours.

Other legislature did not apply to child vendors as it does not consider the street “a formal place of work,” Mr. Peni said.

“The country needs to work together, especially the ministries and [social organisations] that deal with child labour,” he said.

“What they need to do is look at the gaps [in legislation] and see where they can work together to include the street vendors in legislation.”

He said young children were working into the late hours of the night on the streets of Apia, selling various things. That exposed them to a variety of dangerous activities as well, with some children stealing.

Mr. Peni said the street vendor issue would take some time to solve, but government intervention was important. In the meantime, the community and social organisations throughout the country had an important role to play in ensuring children weren’t working as street vendors, he said.

“What we want to see in the next course of action is for the social partners [I.L.O is working with] to take action.”

That included groups such as the Child Labour Working Committee and the Samoa Workers Congress.

Mr. Peni urged parents to put a stop to their kids working as child vendors.

“I think it’s time they take the issue seriously.”

Mr. Peni’s comments came as the I.L.O held a Child Labour Validation Forum at the Development Bank of Samoa yesterday.

The forum featured presentations from various speakers, including Mr. Peni, about child labour.

Mr. Peni said there was a significant need for solid data on child labour in Samoa, with few studies done on the issue, as the country looks to address the problem.

The forum would attempt to solve the lack of data around child street vending, acting as the final validation exercise for an assessment on child street vendors performed by the I.L.O in late 2014. According to a press release from the organisation, that rapid assessment found children involved in child labour and also in the worst forms of child labour.

The release went on to say that the first validation exercise on the rapid assessment was done in May last year. The rapid assessment features various pieces of information on working street children, including gender distribution, age distribution, whether the children are homeless or not, the status of their schooling and more.

It also includes various “narratives” from some of the child vendors interviewed for the rapid assessment.

One such narrative, from a 17-year-old female street vendor, states: “My aunty was mean to me after my parents died and I chose to leave home and live on the street. I am no longer in school because there is always never enough money for my family. My friends on the street helped show me what to do to earn some money, so I started selling things like matches, pins, razor blades, chips, drinks. Later on I also learnt that I can go out with men and boys and get paid for sex. To survive on the street I have learnt to stick with others on the street and only go with my regular clients.”