TEAMHumanity

Exploited: Salim, 7 - makes bricks at a factory in Islamabad, Pakistan

MORE than 211 million children worldwide are forced to work full­time, many of them in appalling conditions, a new report reveals.

Some are prostitutes, miners and even soldiers, said the British branch of the United Nations Children's Fund. Child labour is a scar on the conscience of the world, it added.

Youngsters as young as five are born, sold or trafficked into domestic slavery in many countries, some earning barely 52p a month, the report found. It cited cases of them labouring in unregulated Asian chemical plants, Latin American mines and West African quarries. They are forced to work as soldiers in African wars, in the sweatshops of Asia , as farm labour in North America and as prostitutes in Europe - including cities in England. The incidence of child labour is highest in Africa, involving 41 per cent of five to 14-year-olds. Asia has 21 per cent and Latin America and the Caribbean 17 per cent. But Asia accounts for 60 per cent of working children because of its higher population.

The UN fund is pleading for rich nations to end the scandal by boosting aid to poor countries by £26billion a year and raising annual aid budgets to 0.7 per cent of national income.

It urged the Government to use its presidency of the EU to drive forward the fight against poverty.

Its spokesman said: 'A huge amount remains to be done to protect children's rights and to prevent their exploitation.'