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CONFIDENTIAL
BACKGROUND NOTE
CHILD LABOUR IN HONG KONG
1. The Hong Kong Labour Department started a campaign in the late sixties to stamp out child labour and prosecute offenders. A particular feature is the special inspections during which over 5,000 factories are inspected in the course of a few days.
2.
Although certain aspects of the Hong Kong Government's attitude to child labour are open to criticism, namely the fact that persons under 14 are prohibited from working only in industrial undertakings and that the level of fines on employers seems low, on balance its efforts to enforce the law do seem to have contained this particular problem in 1974 and 1975. In the longer term, and to ensure elimination of the problem, the law on the employment of children must be changed in step with the raising of the school leaving age. The Hong Kong Government intend to prohibit all employment of persons under 14 by 1979 and under 15 by 1980, although these targets have not yet been
announced.
CONFIDENTIAL
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