"Agencies Pledge To Curb Abuse of Child Farmworkers"

"NEW YORK — Year after year, to little avail, activist groups have been urging bolder federal action to curtail the health risks and exploitation endured by the legion of children who labor on America's farms.

This week, against the backdrop of a stinging new report from Human Rights Watch, two federal agencies are pledging to do better. And prospects are brightening, though still uncertain, for a pending bill in Congress that would close loopholes that facilitate many of the abuses.

Human Rights Watch, which focuses most of its investigative work overseas, had examined the exploitation of America's child farmworkers in a report 10 years ago. It documented the harm many of these children suffered to their health and education, and assailed existing legal protections as weak and poorly enforced.

In its new report, released Wednesday, the group said conditions for the estimated 300,000 to 400,000 child farmworkers 'remain virtually as they were' and faulted Congress, the Labor Department and the Environmental Protection Agency for failing to take effective action."

David Crary reports for the Associated Press May 5, 2010.