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Executive Summary
This report was commissioned by the Swedish network Schyst resande and conducted by the
Fair Trade Center, with the overall objective of raising awareness of children’s rights in relation
to tourism and travel destinations which many Swedish tourists visit. It pays specific attention
to booming tourism destinations in Thailand, Cambodia and South Africa and focuses on how
children are directly and indirectly affected by tourism, and in particular on how their rights as
children are affected in these countries.
The chapter on Thailand focuses mainly on undocumented Burmese migrant children and
their families working in the tourism industry. Their basic rights are not respected and parents
are discriminated against through low pay, few benefits and hazardous working conditions.
Migrating parents are often separated from their children. This can also be said of the children
with parents working in the tourism industry in South Africa. The lack of parental control
may also leave children vulnerable to social ills such as gang culture, alcohol and drugs as well
as transactional sex. Many worker interviewees from Thailand, Cambodia and South Africa
indicated that their job gives them a chance to provide for their children and to master a trade.
There were other similarities between the three countries. Migration, and especially internal
migration to tourism cities, was prevalent in Cambodia, for example in the construction industry.
Cambodian parents are struggling to make ends meet and taking jobs that are high-risk
and low-paid. Street children were particularly at risk in all three countries, being exposed to
child sex offenders and drug abuse. They also begged and sold flowers, postcards and drinks
to tourists. Trafficking of children is prevalent in all countries, and child sex tourism was found
to be statistically prevalent in Thailand and Cambodia. Official data on the extent of child sex
tourism in South Africa is lacking, but it is estimated to be a problem there too.
In Cambodia, high poverty levels aggravate the situation for Cambodian children, which to
some extent explains the high level of child labour. There is a constant demand for the services
of children. In Thailand, child labour has decreased but still remains a problem. In South
Africa, child labour is prevalent as well.
The report also focuses on the fastest growing niche within the tourism industry in the
countries concerned – voluntourism. Since volunteer destinations lack resources, this growth
means that tourism companies themselves must bear greater responsibility in ensuring adequate
protection for children in volunteer projects, especially children in orphanages. Volunteer
projects therefore need to be effectively planned, managed and monitored, and they must
serve to meet local needs. Volunteers also need to share this responsibility, in particular by
seeking out volunteering organizations with the best practices and sound knowledge of how to
contribute to the well-being of the children concerned.
The findings of the report emphasize the need to define how tour operators can work to respect
children’s rights. Sweden’s three biggest tour operators mainly focus their work on children
by implementing the ECPAT Code of Conduct for the Protection of Children from Sexual
Exploitation in Travel and Tourism. By adopting the Children’s Rights and Business Principles
developed by Unicef, the UN Global Compact and Save the Children, tour operators have a
framework for working with children’s rights, and can integrate them into their core operations.
Some tour operators such as Apollo has already have made references to the principles on
their website, but we call upon all tour operators to implement them more broadly across the
sector. The report ends with key recommendations for travellers and volunteers as well as for
volunteering companies and travel operators aimed at improving the basic rights of children in
tourist-driven economies.
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