Dangerous Diving - Child Gold Miners in the Philippines
June 7, 2024
They alone are slender enough to dive deep into self-dug tunnels, through swamps or down to the seabed. The highly dangerous undertaking puts their lives at risk.
All over the country, families are digging for gold in thousands of small-scale mines without supervision or controls: men, women and children, all hoping for a few nuggets that they can sell for a handful of pesos.
In the swamps in the center of the country, 13-year-old Hato spends hours every day diving for gold in deep water-filled holes. He breathes through a thin plastic tube connected to an air compressor on his father's dugout canoe. One small puncture would mean certain death for the boy.
800 kilometers away, on the island of Leyte, 14-year-old Dennis Junior dives 20 meters deep into the warm, clear waters of the Bohol Sea, using the same improvised breathing equipment. Together with his father, he digs for gold on the seabed, filling sacks with sand and bringing them to the surface.
We follow Hato and Dennis Junior in the Philippines as they go about their dangerous work. According to the NGO Human Rights Watch, thousands of children across the country are helping their parents search for gold.
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