A spokesman for the Vatican has denied claims of child labour and exploitation taking place at a tea plantation located on land owned by the Catholic Church in Uganda, claiming that it is the responsibility of the local church and not the faith central administration.
In a BBC investigation, carried out by Irish journalist Vinnie O’Dowd, land owned by the Roman Catholic Church in Kabale, 400km south-west of the Ugandan capital of Kampala, was revealed to be leased by the clergy to the Kigezi Highland Tea Company, which is alleged to be employing child labourers on the site.
Alex Turyaritunga, a former child soldier who now works as a nurse for the Ugandan branch of the UNHCR, the international organisation’s refugee agency, contacted the British news agency, alerting its journalists that children were being employed and exploited on the site, which has been rented by the tea producer since 2013.
A site supervisor, under the promise of anonymity, confirmed Mr Turyaritunga’s claims, and when the BBC’s reporters visited the site, they discovered 15 children picking tea plants and transporting them up steep hills to be planted. Children were also discovered pulling weeds from the tea crops.
The supervisor also revealed that the children employed on the plantation earn between 1000 and 2000 Ugandan Schillings for their day’s labour, the equivalent of €0.27 to €0.55.
When asked their age, several of the children working on the site replied that they were “10 years old,” before they started laughing and returned to their work.
The youngest at which a person can legally be employed is 14, but according to the most recent UN statistics on child labour as many as 30% of children between the ages of five and 14 are working, often in dangerous working conditions.
A Catholic official in Kabale told the BBC that the land was owned by the Church and that the local clergy had signed a “business deal between the diocese and Kigezi Highland Tea.”
Reporters’ attempts to contact the local bishop could only reach his secretary, Father Lucien, who denied that child labour was taking place on the plantation.
Reacting in the Vatican, Pope Francis’s spokesman, Federico Lombardi, said: “If there is a problem for the local church, I am not responsible for that.”
Alex Turyaritunga, 32, was unimpressed with the Pontiff’s official stance on the matter, saying: "Child labour damages children psychologically. I feel the Vatican should wake up and revise the business policy of the Catholic Church – or else there is going to be danger.
"I feel at the same time the Catholic Church is not ready for business," he added.
"That's why I am calling for policy reform. And I know this policy reform will transform the community very well, because we will have no child abuse, we will have no child labour."
