4.5 million people, including children, work in almost 20,000 brick kilns across Pakistan to pay off family loans taken from business owners.
What was once a small loan ends up trapping generations into bonded labour.
These are their stories: aje.io/z6bla
Yasmin started work at this kiln outside Lahore a year ago. Her husband is ill and they have no money for medicine aje.io/z6bla
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EHZkT5uX4AAPPyj.jpg)
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EHZkjUvWwAApp1H.jpg)
Yet almost 70% of bonded labourers in Pakistan are children - many of them inheriting their parents' debt or kept as hostages if their parents leave the kiln aje.io/z6bla
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EHZkorRWkAAKA4p.jpg)
Hazardous fumes from the kilns cause asthma, tuberculosis and other diseases aje.io/z6bla
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EHZlJarWwAIEX59.jpg)
But some workers who manage to flee or are freed are forced back into labour by the owners aje.io/z6bla
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EHZlQp7WkAELkpm.jpg)
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EHZlWyvXUAEY_yx.jpg)
Read more on Pakistan's bonded labour here 👇: aje.io/agmk7