Tom Harkin: “for many years, I have been active in efforts to stop exploitative child labor as well as trafficking in child and…”

“for many years, I have been active in efforts to stop exploitative child labor as well as trafficking in child and female slaves around the world. In my travels to many countries, I have seen this scourge firsthand. I have come to the floor of the Senate many times to speak about this issue. I have spoken about how shocked I was to see the deplorable conditions under which these kids are forced to work. Many are physically, emotionally, and sexually abused. All of them, every child engaged in abusive child labor is deprived of a childhood solely for someone else's gain. Why should we as a nation tolerate children being used in such a manner? We should not. It is a moral outrage and an affront to human dignity. When a child is exploited for the economic gains for others, not only does the child lose, but the family loses and I think the whole world loses. It is bad economics, and it is bad development strategy. A nation cannot achieve prosperity on the backs of children, and there should simply be no place in the global economy for child labor. So when news reports about forced child labor on west African cocoa farms first emerged in 2001, I was not entirely surprised.…”