The publication shows that up to 95 percent of children engaged in hazardous work are employed in agriculture, especially in the cocoa, palm oil and tobacco sectors.

It also asserted that forced labor is linked to the many ways workers are dependent on employers.

“Many of these workers are young and dropped out school at an early age with little training or no skills. The transition from education to paid employment is difficult or impossible for many young people in rural areas,” ILO expert Maria Helena Andre said in the report’s foreword.

The document also noted that about 80 percent of the world’s poor live in rural areas, many of whom face serious decent-work deficits, including inadequate safety, low pay, lack of stability and security, and excessive working hours.

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