because I don’t have a work permit I can’t work. The person I had to work for told me I could not get a work permit until I’m 18. He told me to go back to the police to say that I’m 18 and to have my birthday changed.”252 Similarly, 17-year-old Musa M. told us: “They tell me that I’m underage so they don’t want to keep me.”253 Human Rights Watch visited a square in Athens where dozens of migrants and asylum seekers wait for jobs every morning. We encountered several young boys standing in a group. Although some of them seemed clearly younger than 18, when we asked them about their age, they were firm that they were not underage. The Risk to Children’s Health Children employed in farm work and on construction sites perform labor that exposes them to a combination of health and safety risks: the lifting of heavy loads, the risk of falling from height, cold temperatures over long hours, and substandard and unhygienic accommodation. None of the children interviewed performed such work under the exceptions permissible in national law, and the required safeguards and protection were not applied. Health and safety risks make such work prohibited forms of child labor and bring them into the category of worst form of child labor, as defined by article 3 of the Worst Forms of Child Labor Convention.254 While this is also in violation of Greek law, there was little evidence that the Greek authorities take steps to enforce the law and protect children (see below). All children who worked in the construction sector told us that they had to lift heavy loads and almost all had to mix cement and carry it up several floors for other workers. Fourteen-year-old Wali P. said he wasn’t able to find any lighter work on construction sites: “carrying up the cement is the hardest. Always the young [boys] 252 Human Rights Watch interview with Hazrat A., Athens, May 27, 2008. 253 Human Rights Watch interview with Musa M., Athens, May 28, 2008. 254 “For the purposes of this Convention, the term "the worst forms of child labour" comprises: (a) all forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, such as the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage and serfdom and forced or compulsory labour, including forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict; (b) the use, procuring or offering of a child for prostitution, for the production of pornography or for pornographic performances; (c) the use, procuring or offering of a child for illicit activities, in particular for the production and trafficking of drugs as defined in the relevant international treaties; (d) work which, by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out, is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children;” Worst Forms of Child Labor Convention 182, art. 3. 77 Human Rights Watch December 2008