By Lisa Lambert

WASHINGTON, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Natural disasters around the world last year disrupted the lives of millions of children, pushing many into armed conflicts, prostitution, drug trafficking and other dangerous occupations, according to a new U.S. government report on child labor.

At the beginning of 2005 thousands of Asian children found themselves orphaned by a major tsunami. An earthquake in Pakistan, India and Afghanistan destroyed the homes of 2.8 million people and other disasters in Africa and Latin America left children scrambling for support, the report said.

"Other children, who were studying prior to a disaster, can fall victim to exploitation in the worst forms of child labor when they lose a teacher or their school is destroyed," the U.S. Labor Department said in its report.

The report surveyed 137 countries and territories that receive U.S. trade benefits, using information from U.S. embassies, foreign governments and nongovernmental groups as well as field visits by Labor Department staff.

After the tsunami struck Sri Lanka in December 2004 there were reports of traffickers buying and selling orphans, the report said. The country's rebel army, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, also recruited children from survivors' camps, it said.

The report also found that war-ravaged Afghanistan is a "country of origin" for children trafficked for sex and labor, as well as the harvesting of human organs.

In Iraq, children younger than 14 are being recruited to fight in armed political groups and girls are sent to neighboring countries for sex work, the department said.

According to the International Labor Organization, a United Nations agency, one in seven children worldwide is involved in child labor.

Geoff Keele, a spokesman for the United Nations Children's Fund, or UNICEF, said children forced to mine or work on heavy construction equipment, as well as those who are trafficked, all face life-endangering hazards. Those impressed as domestic help can also be abused, he said.

"You have children in slave-like conditions," he said.

James Carter, head of international affairs at the Labor Department, said the U.S. handed out $69.7 million in 2005 for combating child labor abroad and it would continue supporting children hurt by natural disasters in the coming year.

AlertNet, Sept 28

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