Through foreign experts' help, Yemen and Saudi Arabia embarked on implementing a plan to limit Yemeni child trafficking to Saudi Arabia. The two sides further agreed to establish a border center for mentoring and qualifying trafficked children to be sent back to their homes later.

Yemeni Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Amatalrazaq Ali Humad assured the joint committee including Yemeni Defense and Interior Ministers and their Saudi counterparts will work on setting a plan in an effort to limit Yemeni children trafficking to the Kingdom.

Humad added that international experts will join the committee in order to know closely the dysfunctions and challenges that stand before the concerned authorities and prevent them from abolishing such a phenomenon. She further indicated that over 900 children aged 6-14 were trafficked this year to the Saudi Arabia.

Yemeni children face a lot of challenges and they lead a very deprived life that forces their families to send them to work either inside the country or outside.

A study prepared by the Sweden Organization interested in child caring revealed 42 percent of child respondents (1,000 respondents) work 6-10 hours a day and 39 percent work 11-17 hours.

The study also indicated that 29 percent of child respondents work as street vendors, wherein 25 percent of them are subjected to diseases resulting from climate change, while 6 percent are subjected to infectious diseases.

Further, 50 percent of working children are subjected to sexual harassment and maltreatment by bosses, ignoring the law that prohibited over 72 jobs as being dangerous for children. 

Yemeni government admits that child labor is inordinately inflating at annual average of 3 percent, mostly of children under 12 years old.

According to 2003 statistics of the Central Statistical Organization, the number of working children in Yemen was 3.3 million, 17 percent of them support families and receive decent wages.

92 percent of children work in agriculture where they are subjected to toxicants resulting from using pesticides; while 4.8 percent work in service sector and 2.5 percent work in indecent jobs, mostly females.

Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs launched this month social monitoring and subsequent care program, which is initially implemented in Taiz and Al-Hodeidah and aims to partnering the local society in protecting child from perversion or integration into society in case he gets outside the law.

An initial survey, financially supported by the International Organization for Criminal rehabilitation is due to be launched over the coming days.