Bulgaria: A Child Repairs a Sidewalk in Sofia - The Authorities began an Inspection (VIDEO)

A small child arranges and carries tiles on the sidewalk on Boris III Blvd., where repairs are being made. This became known from a video of Teodor Mihailov, distributed on social networks and broadcast on bTV. After the case became public, the institutions started investigations into the case.

The video was filmed yesterday, when the temperatures in Sofia exceeded 30 degrees Celsius in the shade, and the child was in the sun. When Mihailov asked one of the workers why the boy was working, he received the answer that "the child is learning a trade".

"Yesterday around 3 p.m. a friend who had passed a little earlier sent me a video of a little kid carrying tiles and hammering them. Shortly after that I came here because I couldn't believe this was happening. The child himself continued to arrange and carry tiles. The other workers were not very kind. They told me that they had shovels and could throw paving stones and told me to leave," Mihailov explained to bTV.

According to him, it is understood from comments on social networks that there have been children laying tiles on the capital's boulevard for weeks.

"We need to encourage children to work, but this is not encouragement and 'learning a trade'. This is exploitation of child labor. My appeal is to distinguish between these two things," stressed Georgi Bogdanov, executive director of the National Network for Children. He added that in such cases the National Telephone Line for Children - 116 111 - should be called.

The institutions begin an investigation into the child's case. The executive agency "Main Labor Inspectorate" explained to "Dnevnik" that the agency knows about the case and that two teams have been sent to the place where the repair is...