† Determined by national law or regulation as hazardous and, as such, relevant to Article 3(d) of ILO C. 182.
‡ Child labor understood as the worst forms of child labor per se under Article 3(a)–(c) of ILO C. 182.

Children at Higher Risk

Many children in Haiti are not registered at birth, and unregistered children are not able to access social services and educational programs provided by the government, making them particularly vulnerable to human trafficking. According to reports, approximately 30 percent of children ages 1 to 5 lack birth certificates or any other official documentation. Children born in rural communities are less likely to be documented than children in urban areas. Due to poverty, some parents who are unable to care for their children send them to residential care centers or to relatives or strangers who are expected to provide the children with food, shelter, and schooling in exchange for household work. In practice, some of these children receive care and access to education, while many others become victims of labor exploitation and abuse. In addition, Haiti has more than 750 orphanages that house more than 30,000 children who may be vulnerable to human trafficking and child labor. Research indicates that some children in orphanages engage in child labor as domestic workers and are prevented from attending school. Due to the security situation of the country, children are at an increased risk of child labor, especially in areas under gang control. According to reports, all gangs in Haiti have children in their ranks and exploit them for use in armed violence, including to carry out attacks, as well as for labor.

Barriers to Education Access

There are significant barriers to education in Haiti, especially in rural areas, including extreme poverty, security risks, language barriers, access to transportation, limited availability of teachers, dilapidated school premises, and overall lack of school infrastructure. Moreover, because approximately 80 percent of all existing schools are private, most Haitian children are enrolled in private schools that charge tuition and other fees, making education prohibitively expensive for many families. In addition, estimates show that approximately 10 percent of students drop out of school before grade six and 40 percent before the end of grade nine, making these children more vulnerable to child labor, including its worst forms. Research also indicates that less than 14 percent of children with disabilities attend school, with only 3.5 percent of an estimated 120,000 children with disabilities attending school in the capital Port-au-Prince.

The Labor Code, which establishes the penalty for violations of the minimum age for work, applies only to workers with a formal employment agreement, a stipulation that does not conform to international standards that require all children to be protected under the law establishing a minimum age for work. Furthermore, as the minimum age for work is 16, children aged 15 are vulnerable to exploitative child labor because they are not required to attend school but also are not yet legally permitted to work. It is also unclear whether there is a minimum age for domestic work because the Act on the Prohibition and Elimination of All Forms of Abuse, Violence, Ill Treatment, or Inhumane Treatment Against Children of 2003 (Act of 2003) annulled Chapter 9 of the Labor Code, which set the minimum age for domestic work at age 12. The Labor Code prohibits children under age 18 from working in establishments that sell alcohol and from working at night in industrial enterprises. However, the types of hazardous work prohibited for children do not cover agriculture, an economic sector in which children are exposed to hazardous substances and to temperatures that can damage their health. Furthermore, although the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Law criminalizes trafficking for forced labor, servitude, and debt bondage, slavery is not criminally prohibited. Research could not find evidence of any other legal provision criminally prohibiting slavery. Moreover, while Haiti's Constitution establishes the age for compulsory military recruitment at age 18 and sources suggest that recruitment materials set the minimum age for voluntary recruitment at that age, research could not find evidence of a law that establishes the age for voluntary recruitment.

In 2023, an unknown number of labor inspectors conducted routine labor inspections; the total number of worksite inspections or whether child labor violations were found is unknown. It is also unknown how many investigations into suspected cases of the worst forms of child labor were conducted, prosecutions were initiated, or perpetrators were convicted.

For information about USDOL’s projects to address child labor around the world, visit https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ilab/ilab-project-page-search
† Program is funded by the Government of the Republic of Haiti.

In Haiti, the law set very low fines for dismissing trade union members despite legal protections and did not explicitly provide for reinstatement as a remedy. To establish a union, MAST must provide prior approval and approve the union’s constitution. In addition, workers cannot choose which trade union they would like to join, and children who are at or above the minimum age for work cannot join a union without parental permission. As labor unions are integral to reporting and advocacy on the identification and prevention of child labor, violations of child labor laws and other labor abuses in the agriculture sector may go undetected.

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