Are minors exploited in Babruisk summer camps?

Minors are involved in common labour for 9-12 hours a day in Babruisk summer camps for 200 thousand roubles. They also complain about bad living conditions.
Minor college students are obliged to go though practice in Babruisk summer camps. Their workdays are much longer that the law allows. The majority of the trainees are not involved in the things they were taught to do in college.

Trainees from a children’s summer camp “Camomile” have told ERB about it.

ERB: – Tell us please, what did you have to do during the practice?

Trainee: – We washed dishes and peeled potatoes, cleaned the dining-hall, bore food and collected empty dishes. Our few guys had to look after the big buckets food was cooked in.  We had to work all day long. When sanitary inspectors visited us (it happened twice in 18 days) we had to wake up at 5 to start working by 6 a.m. We had only two breaks and finished work at 11 or 11.30 p.m. We did not even have enough time for the 8-hour sleep at night. They told us we were inexperienced and it took us more time then necessary to do the job.

But we had not been taught to do it! We are cooks! We had to write a diary about the dishes we cooked but we did not cook. However, we had to write the diaries anyway because it was obligatory. We were involved in common labour and had to describe the process of cooking. But we had no choice as the main category exam was appointed after the practice. It is very cunning.

ERB: – How do you think, is the situation like this only in “Camomile” or is it the same in other summer camps?

Trainee: – It is worse in other camps! My colleagues are working not far from here – in “Eaglet”, “Friendship” and other camps. They will not be paid anything at all. Many of them have terrifying working conditions. They are working as cleaners for 12 hours a day because there is lack of staff or because someone is on a sick leave.

ERB: – How can you describe the living and hygienic conditions in the summer camp?

Trainee: – We have only one shower. Hot water is often turned off. The wash-stand is outside. Everything is terribly old. There is always a long queue and we lack time for sleep. We will be paid about 200 thousands for it. Other summer camps will not pay anything at all. So we are lucky.

ERB has phoned the camp administration to clear up confusion. The head-cook, Alyaksandr Sardechny, the chief of all the trainees, did not comment on the story but informed that everything was okay and according to the law in the summer camp.



Motto on the way to the camp



"Camomile" summer camp



“Campers” could have bought small things in the shop










Hygiene appliances of future cooks





Pictorial agitation



Dunin-Martsinkyevich, an aesthete born in the region, would have approved of the conceptual window in the shower. By the way, he struggled against slavery. 





Photos by Ales Vasko