![]() Among the most common answers from miners included guaranteeing access to free education – many children in Congo pay school fees – and providing parents a living wage.Īs one miner explained via text message, “Free education, work and living wage for parents. News The small cost to end child mining is not a price Big Tech is willing to pay By Maya Shwayder DecemWhen he visited the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), human rights. The answers showed how the problem of child labor is not just one of regulation – after all, child labor is illegal in the Congo. The miners were also asked to answer the question, “What do you think should be done to make sure children don’t have to work in the mines?” There have been warnings about child labor before - Amnesty International highlighted the problem in 2016 and Glencore (), a leading cobalt producer, said last month that some small mines in the. Only a few worked in cobalt mines, but the poll results showed how problems are prevalent no matter the mineral. Most worked in diamond or gold mines, followed by tin and copper. Nearly half of the respondents said they worked in artisanal mines, where digging is done by hand, often in the most risky circumstances. 84 miners (53 percent) said there was no safety equipment. ![]() 54 miners (64 percent) who reported seeing accidents said the most common cause was a mine cave-in.87 miners (55 percent) said they had been a death in the mines.95 miners (60 percent) said they had seen a child hurt working in the mines.93 miners (58 percent) said they had seen children working in mines.GeoPoll hopes to do more polling in the future as a way for companies to learn more about the workers in the farthest reaches of their supply chains. While the survey was limited and did not reach the level of a representative sampling, it does appear to provide additional evidence of widespread safety hazards in mines. of child labor to mine cobalt for electronics, such as. In a motion to dismiss filed on 25 August 2020, five major technology companies named in a lawsuit over the mining deaths of Congolese children argued to dismiss the case, claiming that the expansive theories alleged in the complaint are not supported by law. Apple, Google, Microsoft, Dell, and Tesla are being sued over their alleged reliance on cobalt mined by. They were paid the equivalent of 50 cents for their time and texting charges. exploitation and, in many ways, are a relic of the DRCs colonial past.3 Artisanal mining in. First Lawsuit of Its Kind Accuses Big Tech of Profiting From Child Labor in Cobalt Mines. And 159 of them completed the entire survey – enough to provide a rough sense of how these miners felt about their jobs. 26, a month after The Post’s story, GeoPoll sent a text message to thousands of mobile phones in some of Congo’s mining provinces to ask if the recipients worked in mining and would be willing to answer some questions. The effort to poll Congo’s miners, GeoPoll said, was motivated in part by The Washington Post’s investigation earlier this year of Congo’s cobalt trade, which found dangerous, at times deadly, work conditions and the presence of child workers. Digital Replica Edition Home Page Close Menu
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