Portugal's child protection authorities identified 6 cases of child labour in 2025, according to the annual report from the National Commission for the Promotion and Protection of Children and Young People (CPCJ). Five involved children engaged in begging, while one case involved an adult using a child to solicit money. Though statistically small, these cases highlight persistent gaps in social safety nets despite decades of protective legislation.
Why This Matters
• Begging-based exploitation remains the most common form, tied to extreme poverty and organized networks.
• The Montijo municipality recorded 4 cases alone, more than anywhere else in the country.
• Portugal's legal framework prohibits child labour under 16, yet enforcement gaps allow cases to slip through the net, especially in informal sectors.
• The June 12 International Day Against Child Labour coincides with new global data showing the 2025 eradication target was missed worldwide.
The Numbers Behind the Headline
According to the 2025 Annual Assessment Report of the Child and Youth Protection Commissions (CPCJ), the 6 confirmed cases break down as follows: 5 children directly engaged in begging, and 1 child instrumentalized—meaning used by an adult—to solicit money in public spaces. The latter category is considered especially harmful because it adds a layer of exploitation, exposing the child to physical, emotional, and social risk while a third party profits.
Geographically, the cases surfaced in Montijo (4), Almeirim (3), Sintra Ocidental (3), Águeda (1), Miranda do Corvo (1), and Felgueiras (1). This distribution suggests the phenomenon is not confined to a single socioeconomic profile or region, complicating targeted intervention. The report authors argue the scatter also points to under-diagnosis: detection depends heavily on community vigilance and the technical capacity of local protection bodies, meaning actual incidence may be higher.
What Child Labour Looks Like in Portugal Today
Child labour in contemporary Portugal is no longer the factory-floor image of the 20th century. A 2001 International Labour Organization (ILO) study identified nearly 49,000 children working, most in textiles, footwear, agriculture, and domestic service, with the northern regions showing the highest concentration. By 2007, agriculture alone employed roughly 24,000 minors, many performing unpaid subsistence tasks on family farms.
Fast-forward to 2025: those sectors have largely formalized or mechanized, but poverty-driven exploitation has shifted to street-based activities—begging, informal vending, and forced labour within migrant or marginalized communities. The CPCJ report explicitly links the 6 recent cases to contexts of extreme poverty, family dysfunction, and social exclusion, echoing findings from civil society organizations that 20.7% of Portuguese children (347,000) lived below the monetary poverty line as of 2023, placing Portugal among the 8 EU member states with the highest child poverty rates.
The Legal Framework and Why It Matters
Portugal's Constitution (Article 69, Section 3) prohibits child labour outright during compulsory schooling years. The Labour Code (Law 7/2009, amended by Law 13/2023) sets the minimum working age at 16, conditional on completing compulsory education and physical and psychological fitness assessments. Night work (8 p.m. to 7 a.m.) is banned for minors, and any participation in cultural, artistic, or advertising activities requires CPCJ authorization.
These protections align with EU Directive 94/33/CE and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (Article 32), which anchor child protection across the bloc. Portugal has also ratified ILO Conventions 138 and 182, covering minimum working age and the worst forms of child labour, respectively.
Violations carry criminal penalties. Unlawful employment of a minor, refusal to cease such employment when ordered, or subjecting a child to physical or psychological harm through hazardous work can result in prison sentences. Yet enforcement remains patchy: the 2025 CPCJ report notes that many cases surface only through community tip-offs, not proactive inspections.
Impact on Residents and the Social Contract
For families living in Portugal—whether native-born or recent arrivals—the persistence of child labour, even at low levels, signals fragility in the social protection system. The National Guarantee for Childhood Plan (2023), backed by €5.1 billion from the Recovery and Resilience Plan and €340 million from the European Social Fund+, aims to tackle child poverty through early childhood education, health, nutrition, housing, and support for children in alternative care. Yet the 2025 data suggest that despite these investments, enforcement and early intervention mechanisms have not yet closed the gap for the most vulnerable.
The Montijo cluster is particularly instructive. A single municipality accounting for 4 of 6 cases suggests either a localized organized network or a concentration of high-risk families. Neighboring Almeirim and Sintra Ocidental, with 3 cases each, face similar challenges. All three municipalities lie within commuting distance of Lisbon, hinting at urban-periphery dynamics where informal economies flourish and oversight is thin.
For residents, the takeaway is practical: if you observe children begging or working in public, report it directly to the local CPCJ or the national hotline (144). The 2025 report stresses that community vigilance is the first line of defense, and swift reporting can trigger protective measures before long-term harm sets in.
Why Begging Is the Most Common Form
The practice of begging accounts for 5 of the 6 cases, a pattern that has recurred annually in CPCJ reports. Experts trace this to poverty, unemployment, parental disability, and in some cases, human trafficking networks that exploit children as revenue generators. The ILO classifies forced begging as a hazardous form of child labour, given the physical exposure, emotional trauma, and social stigma involved.
Historically, child begging was tied to marginalized communities, particularly Roma populations, who face systemic discrimination and higher poverty rates. However, recent economic shocks—including the 2020–2021 pandemic and the 2022–2023 inflation wave—have pushed non-Roma families into precarity as well. The 2024 CPCJ communication data showed that neglect and abandonment were the fastest-growing categories, underscoring the role of economic stress in child welfare crises.
The instrumentalization case—where an adult uses a child to beg—represents a more deliberate form of exploitation, often linked to organized crime or trafficking. Portuguese law treats this as a serious criminal offence, but prosecution requires proof of coercion or control, which can be difficult to establish if families are transient or undocumented.
What Authorities Are Doing—and What's Still Missing
In March 2025, the Portuguese Parliament recommended that the government commission a fresh study on child labour, including its modern forms—artistic, sports, advertising, and digital content creation—and strengthen prevention and family support measures. In February 2026, the government announced nationwide CPCJ coverage and is exploring intermunicipal commissions to pool resources in smaller, rural areas where capacity is strained.
Portugal is also revising its national list of hazardous child labour, adapting it to current socioeconomic realities. This list, which feeds into enforcement priorities, has not been comprehensively updated since the early 2000s.
At the global level, the February 2026 6th World Conference on the Elimination of Child Labour in Marrakech reaffirmed that the 2025 eradication target—set under UN Sustainable Development Goal 8.7—was missed. The ILO and UNICEF estimate that 138 million children remain in child labour worldwide, with 54 million in hazardous work. Agriculture accounts for 61% of cases globally, though in Portugal, street-based exploitation has overtaken rural work.
The 2021–2025 National Action Plan for the Elimination of Child Labour and the 2004 Programme for the Prevention and Elimination of Child Labour Exploitation (PETI) laid the groundwork, but the 2025 data suggest gaps in early detection and cross-sector coordination. The CPCJ report calls for articulated responses involving social services, education, health, and poverty alleviation—acknowledging that child labour is a symptom of deeper structural failures.
Context: How Portugal Compares to the EU
Portugal's 6 reported cases in 2025 represent a dramatic decline from the 49,000 identified in 2001, a success attributable to stricter enforcement, rising education levels, and economic development. However, the under-diagnosis caveat means the true figure may be higher, particularly in informal sectors.
Across Europe and Central Asia, the ILO estimated 6 million children in child labour as of 2024, representing roughly 4% of the child population. Portugal's 6 confirmed cases, in a country of approximately 2 million children, represents one of the lowest rates in the EU, though experts warn of under-diagnosis. While EU member states share common legal frameworks, enforcement varies widely. Southern and Eastern European countries with higher child poverty rates—Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, and Portugal—report more persistent child labour, especially in agriculture, construction, and street work.
The EU Directive CS3D (2024/1760), which imposes corporate due diligence obligations on supply chains, including child labour, may reduce exploitation linked to global production networks, but its impact on domestic, informal child labour remains uncertain.
The Path Forward
The National Commission argues that eradicating the remaining cases requires permanent vigilance, coordinated institutional responses, and early family intervention. Concretely, that means:
• Proactive inspections in high-risk municipalities and sectors.
• Community awareness campaigns timed around International Day Against Child Labour (June 12).
• Stronger social safety nets to reduce the economic incentives for families to exploit their children.
• Inter-agency data sharing between CPCJ, police, labor inspectors, and immigration authorities.
• Targeted support for Roma and migrant families, who face compounding discrimination and language barriers.
For policymakers, the 2025 report is a reminder that even in high-income, EU-regulated contexts, child labour persists at the margins. For residents, it is a call to remain alert and report—because in a country with robust child protection laws, the last line of defense is often a neighbor willing to pick up the phone.
