Indonesia against child labor: government discuss acute problem

Marudin Simanihuruk, a top Labor Ministry official who described the problem as "acute," told reporters Wednesday many Indonesian parents are forced to send their children to work to compensate for low incomes.

Simanihuruk said companies continuing to violate labor laws will be closed down. In one example, a fish factory on North Sumatra was closed two years ago and 251 children were sent home.

Yet about 1.6 million children still work in industrial manufacturing in East Java, Central Java and the city of Medan on North Sumatra, he said.

Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines have been working with the International Labor Organization, or ILO, for more than a decade to reduce child labor in Southeast Asia, the AP reports.