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“I got to spend 24 hours straight in the tunnels. I came in the morning
and left only the next morning. I had to do the needs in there
low. My adoptive mother wanted to send me to school, but my father
adoptive was against. He explored me forcing me to work in the mine, “reported Paul, an orphan boy of 14 years who began working in the mines for 12 years.
The Democratic Republic of Congo is the world’s leading supplier of cobalt ore.
This is just one of tearful testimonials that were given to the investigators responsible for the report with the seals of Amnesty International and the Afrewatch.
The main brands of international technology are leaving to make checks
to ensure that basic cobalt extracted by children, Republic
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), is not used in its products,
. including batteries of mobile phones, laptops and electric cars, according to the defense of human rights organizations
Source: Amnesty International and Afrewatch
“The showy windows in shops and the marketing leading-edge technologies are a fairly stark contrast to the images of children to carry stones bags and miners stuck in tight tunnels permanently at risk from lung damage, “says Mark Dummett, one of the Amnesty International researchers. The document adds: “Millions of people worldwide enjoy the benefits of new technologies but rarely are wondering how they are made. It is more than high time for big brands take responsibility on the extraction of raw materials that are part of its profitable products. “
This new report documents how mineral traders buy cobalt, in areas where child labor is common, and sell to Congo Dongfang Mining (CDM), a Congolese subsidiary of Chinese mining giant Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Ltd (Huayou Cobalt).
A research has investors papers in the field that demonstrate how the Huayou Cobalt and CDM subsidiary process cobalt before selling the three manufacturers of battery components in China and South Korea. These, in turn, say they sell their products the major technology companies and the automotive industry like Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, Sony, Daimler and Volkswagen.
16 multinationals in the
Rapporteurs contacted 16 multinationals, listed as clients of battery manufacturers that are supplied with ore processed by Huayou Cobalt.
One of the companies admitted this link; four said they had no data to verify whether they are buying cobalt ore in Democratic Republic of Congo or processed by Huayou Cobalt; six said they were investigating the allegations.
There are other five companies denied working with cobalt provided by Huayou Cobalt, despite being identified as clients in the corporate documents of battery manufacturers, included in this production chain. And two of the targeted multinationals in the investigation denied even buy whatever containing cobalt from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Nenhuma of companies contacted provided enough detail to be made an independent analysis to the origin of the cobalt used in their products.
“It’s a huge paradox of the digital age that some of the richest and most innovative companies in the world to market apparatus incredibly sophisticated without them being required to demonstrate they come from the raw materials with which its components are manufactured, “says the executive director of the nongovernmental organization AfreWatch-Africa Resources Watch, Emmanuel Umpula.
” The abuses in the mines continue without anyone to see and no one think of them, because in the current world market consumers have no idea about any working conditions in the mines, in factories and assembly lines. Our research found that traders are buying cobalt without making any questions about how and where it was mined, “he continues.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo produces at least 50 percent of the world’s cobalt and one of the largest Ore processors in the country is the CDM, a subsidiary of Chinese giant Huayou Cobalt, which gets Naque country more than 40 percent of the cobalt processing.
De According to this research, miners working in regions where CDM purchase cobalt live with the risk of long-term health damage and an extremely high risk of fatal accidents. At least 80 miners died below ground in southern DRC, only between September 2014 and December 2015. According to UNICEF, almost 40 thousand children
They worked in 2014 in the mines in southern Democratic Republic of
Congo, many of them in cobalt extraction.
The actual number of accidents is unknown, since many accidents are not even registered and the bodies are buried in the rubble of the mines.
Amnesty International researchers also found that the large majority of miners work long hours every day in cobalt wash without the most basic protective equipment such as gloves, work clothes or masks that the safeguard of diseases lungs or skin.
Several children testified to the team at Amnesty International who come to work 12 hours straight in the mines, carrying heavy loads, to earn between one and two dollars a day.
“Companies whose overall profits amount to 125 billion dollars can not credibly argue you have no way to confirm from which the minerals that are essential parts of their products,” argues Mark Dummett, Amnesty International.
"A extraction of the raw materials that make working an electric car or a mobile phone should be a source of prosperity for the miners in the Democratic Republic of Congo. But the reality is that it is an exhausting life, with poverty conditions and in return for almost no money. Large global brands have the power to change it, “says Dummett.
This report shows that companies along the cobalt supply chain are not adequately assess the risks of human rights that exist in the sector .
Lack of regulation
There are currently no global regulation of cobalt market. The ore is not mentioned in the list of “ores [zones] conflict” contained in the sector rules in the United States, which mentions gold, tantalum, tin and tungsten mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“Many of these multinational companies claim to have a zero-tolerance policy against child labor. But this is not worth the paper it is written when in fact companies do not investigate their suppliers. What they say is not credible, “he criticizes Mark Dummett.
” Governments need to put an end to this lack of transparency, which allows profit from companies with misery “, concludes the same charge.
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