Recent reports about a local bakery illegally hiring under-aged workers in its plant has triggered of a debate with some claiming it to be a good idea to train children to work from the early age while others believe that this is tantamount to exploitation.

Three government agencies representing the Ministries of Commerce and Industry, Labor and the Municipal and Rural Affairs intend to open carry out intensive investigation after Eid Al-Adha into the violations discovered lately at Al-Kaki Bakeries, said Fahd Al-Jalal, undersecretary at Commerce Ministry for Consumer Affairs.

“The plant has complied with all requirements and sacked the youngsters who were illegally working at the plant,” he confirmed, adding that competent bodies were applying “strict control” on the plant’s production, which covers a good chunk of Makkah’s demand.

An inspection tour carried out by Walid Al-Kheraiji, director general of the General Organization for Grain Silos and Flour Mills Organization on bakeries in Makkah, documented by photos, found irregularities like employing children as young as 13 years on the production lines without any considerations to their safety or that of the food.

A number of officials and experts accompanied Al-Khuraiji on the tour, when he contacted bodies of jurisdiction, Labor Ministry and Environmental Health to see and record on the ground the violations detected.

“It is possible that the bakery will not receive the flour quota allocated for it until further improvements are made,” explained AL-Khuraiji.

The inspection tour had detected other irregularities including lack of hygiene standards where flocks of doves were flying over the mixers and bread production lines. Besides, veneration of bread inside the place was poor and the place where boxes were produced was filthy in addition to other violations.

Abdullah Al-Aliyan, the director of Labor Ministry branch in Makkah said an inspector was dispatched to the plant to record the violations.

Al-Kaki said an application had been made to transfer the case to the Commission for the Settlement of Labor Disputes.

Around 50 youngsters of different nationalities who were less than 15 years old were found working at the plant in addition to another 36 persons of unknown nationalities, 40 persons without sponsorships and 126 persons working in professions other than their stated ones.

Speaking about the case, Al-Khuraiji said flour sales in Makkah region in August amounted to 826,083 bags, of which 233,655 bags were for Makkah city alone, and sales of flour had peaked at 320,368 bags in the first week of October.

The weekly quantities allocated for Makkah region amounts to 225,238 bags out of which 62,490 bags were allocated for the city alone, with an annual increase of 10 percent starting from August.

Psychology teacher Lamees Mohsen says the government should shut down the plant to teach the owners and the management a lesson. “What they are doing is inhumane. I am sure this means that they are over-worked and underpaid and the bakery is just taking advantage of them,” she said, adding: “I am sure most of their family do not mind because they need the extra cash and they want their children to stay out of trouble, but I don’t think this is the way to solve this problem.”

Admitting that this might be a good idea, stay-at-home mother Israa Essam, however, says: “It is great to teach your children the responsibility at an early age and I always encourage my children to take summer courses and part-time jobs to help them gain experience and learn new skills.”

“However, doing this illegally does not give them the right to hire those young boys to do hard labor work without benefiting them,” she added.

Youssef Abdulmajeed, a corporate lawyer, believes that there is no way out of this for the factory because the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Labor are not going to accept this especially in the case of children with unknown nationalities.

“I fear this because we are not allowed to give money to beggars on the streets because we don’t want to encourage them to live here illegally, and this plant is doing exactly the opposite of what the government wants,” he said.

“This should be a good example for anyone who wants to break the law by hiring illegal workers of any age, not just children. The passport department should be a part of this investigation as well so they can arrest the illegals and deport them to their parent countries,” he added.