Kosovars have children who then exploit them economically

The difficult economic conditions in Kosovo families lead to the obligation of employment of children under the age of 18 in Kosovo, to keep the existence of their families.

Seldin Alija, 17, from Prizren municipality, died months ago in his workplace, as machines he worked and hurt greatly.

The father of the deceased, Semir Alija, has been forced to send his son to work in order to ensure survival. He did not know what condition his son worked on, nor was he interested. On the day that the death of his son was done, he was on his own.

I don't know how exactly this happened. I've been at work, he's been calling a friend and he's got to himself if there's something wrong in the magazine, he's been calling me that he knows I'm a guy who works there”, Aliya said.

In Kosovo the working conditions under which Kosovo youth work are extremely difficult. According to U report NICEF published last year for children's work in Kosovo, the work of children in Kosovo is “tolerated and widely accepted”.

There are no administrative data consolidated in disposition about the degree of economic exploitation of children in Kosovo. However, according to the MICS, 2013-14, 8% of children aged 5-11, 14% of children aged 12-14, and 26% of children aged 15-17 are engaged in economic activities. Seventeen per cent of them are children of the Roma community, the Ashkali and Egypt, who are involved in children's work, compared to 11% of total in the general population.

However, the late father of Seldin Alija, who died at his place of employment, has not filed a lawsuit against his son's company

He's not guilty, he wanted to help me, he stretched out my hand, and there's no day my son is dead. He gave me 30 thousand euros, he put that money in the bank, he'll willingly build me a den as well. Now a few days ago, she bought wood for winter. He's been very fair. As far as the court's work is concerned, I've only issued a statement to the prosecutor, I didn't want to file a lawsuit or anything against the factory director, he's been of great help to”, Alija said.

In this case, the state prosecution has filed charges against the director of this factory, but Semir Alija herself will not do so.

As far as I'm concerned, I don't want to press charges, but if the state wants the lawsuits I'm not against because the laws should be applied”, Alija said.

Kosovo so far has no special law on protecting children's rights. This year the Commission for Human Rights in the Kosovo Parliament has started drafting a children's protection bill.

Duda Balje, chairman of the Parliamentary Commission for Human Rights, has confirmed that they are working on drafting the new law on child protection.

We will present with this new law how to protect children. Those who do not respect this law will be punished, the sentences will be from financially until the company is closed. Also, one problem we have with this law is classification of children's affairs under the age of 18. We can't category because it's very difficult to fix what work kids can do with it, Balje said.

According to her, children in Kosovo are badly mistreated, but unfortunately they cannot change anything.

However, the network of nongovernmental child protection organisations KOMF has several times sent instructions and proposals to the government for protecting children's rights, but so far they have not met with consensus.