The brick kilns that dominate the small village of Aqilpur in Pakistan’s Punjab province now lie abandoned, kilns extinguished by weeks of torrential rain that caused the worst flooding in the country’s history.

Although the floods that have engulfed Aqilpur and the surrounding fields have receded from the heights of a week ago, the furnaces are still surrounded by water.

Most of those who lived locally — part of the country’s multimillion-strong workforce known as the “bettors of the day” because of their piecemeal salaries — left their homes for higher, dry ground.

“I come here every day on my bike and go from one kiln to another looking for work but I can’t find anything,” said Muhammad Ayub, a migrant worker.

Now a road running through the village has become something of a marketplace for the kiln workers, who are both homeless and unemployed.

Ayub, 40, has a sick mother and an eight-year-old daughter to look after.

When his house was destroyed in the torrential rains before the flood, he sent her to a relative’s house near the village.

But when the tide hit, his family was forced to take refuge in a makeshift campsite on high ground outside the village.

More than 33 million people in Pakistan have been affected by the floods caused by record monsoon rains that have inundated a third of the country and claimed at least 1,300 lives.

The floods have destroyed or severely damaged nearly two million homes or businesses, and kilns like those at Aqilpur need to be restarted for reconstruction to begin.

There are thousands of small brickyards and kilns scattered across much of Pakistan – a vital supplier of building materials for the nation of 220 million people.

For the time being, heaps of bricks that should go to construction sites across the country are partly in the flood water.

Ayub worked 12 hours a night making bricks and earned less than US$3 (600 rupees) a shift for his work.

In the mornings he worked in the fields around the village and was only able to sleep briefly in the afternoons before his shift started again.

With the kilns shut down and the fields flooded, his daily wages are gone.

“Where should a worker go?” he asked AFP.

“Where the workers go to look for work, they come back empty-handed.”

Daily workers belong to the poorest strata of Pakistani society, and many in rural areas are exploited by ruthless big farmers and factory owners, who keep them in virtual servitude.

The brick factories in particular are notorious for hiring child labor – illegal under Pakistani law.

One of the youngest of the 50 or so kiln workers camped near Aqilpur is Muhammad Ismail, who joined his father in the brickworks almost a year ago when he turned 12.

He helped shape the clay used to make the bricks before they went into the kiln, hoping his work would help his parents support his six younger siblings.

After Ismail’s father fled their homeland to avoid the floods, he had to borrow money to buy flour and other necessities for his family.

“But now we’re in debt,” Ismail said.

“I looked for work with my father every day. We have to pay off our debts, but I’m losing hope.”

In parts of Pakistan, it is not uncommon for those who incur debts and fail to pay them back to be forced into years of debt bondage as interest on the original sum continues to rise.

This debt can often be passed from one generation to the next.

The kiln workers of Aqilpur have asked the owner to light the kilns so they can resume work, but Ayub believes they are asking the impossible.

“The water collected here will not run dry for at least three months,” he said.

“And after the water dries up, the repair will take another two or two and a half months.”