Johannesburg – An Amnesty International report claimed on Tuesday that electronic giants including Apple, Samsung and Sony were possibly linked to child labour in Africa.
Entitled “This is what we die for: Human rights abuses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo power the global trade in cobalt,” a report compiled by Amnesty International together with Africa Resources Watch (Afrewatch), probes the labour practices in the mining of cobalt, which is used in the manufacture of lithium-ion batteries. The report suggests children as young as seven work in these mines, often in perilous conditions.
Mark Drummett, Business and Human Rights Researcher at Amnesty International said millions of people enjoy the benefits of new technologies, but rarely ask how they are made.
“Glamorous shop displays and marketing of state-of-the-art technologies are a stark contrast to the children carrying bags of rocks, and miners in narrow manmade tunnels risking permanent lung damage,” said Drummett.
The report documents how traders buy cobalt from areas where child labour is rife. The traders sell the mineral to Congo Dongfang Mining (CDM), a wholly owned subsidiary of Chinese mineral giant Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Ltd.
Huayou Cobalt and CDM process the cobalt before selling it to three battery component manufacturers in China and South Korea.
In turn, the battery makers, who claim to supply technology and car companies including Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, Sony, Daimler and Volkswagen.
Amnesty International said it contacted 16 multinationals who were listed as customers of the battery manufacturers that source processed ore from Huayou Cobalt.
One company admitted the connection while four were unable to confirm whether they were buying cobalt from the DRC. Six said they were investigating the claims and five denied sourcing cobalt via Huayou.
None have provided enough details independently verifying where their cobalt in their products come from.
“The abuses in mines remain out of sight and out of mind because in today’s global marketplace, consumers have no idea about the conditions at the mine, factory and assembly line,” said Emmanuel Umpula, Afrewatch Executive Director.
The DRC produces at least 50% of the world’s cobalt, but at a cost. Miners working in areas from which CDM buys cobalt, face the risk of long-term health damage and a high risk of fatal accidents.
Amnesty International researchers found that the vast majority of miners work long hours and sometimes without the most basic of protective equipment. Children told the organisation that they work up to 12 hours a day, carrying heavy loads to earn between one and two dollars a day.
In 2014, Unicef revealed that more than 40 000 children worked in mines across the southern DRC, many of them mining cobalt.
Drummett said mining is one of the worst forms of child labour.
“Companies whose global profits total $125 billion cannot credibly claim that they are unable to check where key minerals in their production come from,” said the report, which shows that companies along the cobalt supply chain are failing to address human rights risks.
African News Agency
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