The economic crisis could lead to increased exploitation of children, particularly girls, adding to the 218-million children who are already being forced to work, the ILO said on Wednesday.

In a new report, the International Labour Organisation said it feared that as the number of families in poverty grows, more children could be taken out of school and made to work instead.

This would erode progress made in eradicating forced child labour, said the ILO.

In 2002, some 246 million children between the age of five and 17 were forced to work. This figure dropped to 218 million in 2006, the latest figure that the ILO has on record.

In particular, girls, some 100 million of whom are working instead of in school, could be the "main losers" if the crisis deepens, said the report.

It noted that families impoverished by the financial crisis could choose to send their sons to school instead of their daughters, adding that such practice is particularly marked in "cultures where daughters are relegated to an inferior position."

The labour organisation said that many girls already have little or no access to education, and work in conditions which put "their health, their security and their morality in serious danger".

The report said many girls are working in particularly risky sectors that are less visible or in domestic work.

One such sector is prostitution, in which some 1.8 million children have been forced into, it added.

AFP

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