Child labour in domestic transport is common in many tourist destinations. Numerous children and young people (mostly boys) work as informal helpers for transportation companies or family businesses or are directly recruited by drivers.

While some children have to work in the transportation sector to support their families, others have left their families for various reasons and work to cover their own expenses.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) differentiates between legitimate child work, which often describes children’s or adolescents’ support in a family business that does not affect their health and personal development or interfere with their schooling, and unacceptable child labour, which deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, interferes with their schooling, and that is harmful to their physical and mental development.

In the transportation industry, child helpers are often required to carry out their tasks every day, without weekends or other rest time. Being at the very end of the staff structure, child helpers often receive extremely low wages.

Working in the transportation industry, children live at a high risk of being involved in an accident. Being in constant contact with customers, children are particularly vulnerable to verbal, physical or sexual violence and harassment. In some countries, young workers in the transport industry (mostly young boys) have migrated from villages to cities with the hope of better prospects or sometimes because of family conflicts or other factors. They do not have a social network in the cities and are completely dependent on the drivers / owners of the transportation business they are employed by.