Products of Slavery

Worldwide, at least 12.3 million children and adults work in forced labor. This is modern day slavery and it is linked to the products that you buy.

The yellow bubbles are the type of products highly likely to be produced by child or forced labor. Click through to learn more about this data and how you can help.

Here are the hard facts about child forced labor in the DRC: (products: cobalt, coltan, copper, diamonds, gold)

Forced labour practices occur in the D.R. Congo, especially in the mining sector. Armed groups, police and mine leaders use different techniques to force people into debt bondage. The police may arrest people for no reason, forcing them to labour as a punishment or to repay a fine, and mine leaders can lend tools out at high prices. Metals mined in the D.R. Congo are crucial to the international electronics industry- coltan is used in all mobile phones.

true stories:

Eight year old Decu and his twin, Kaba, drink only water in the morning before setting off on a two hour walk to the cobalt mine where they work all day in the DRC.

Children can be forced to mine resources such as cobalt in the Democratic Republic of Congo by armies and rebel groups in order to fund their military operations.

At times, rebel groups have destroyed farm lands to leave children and their families no option but to work in cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

To make them work harder, child miners in the Democratic Republic of Congo are prodded with rifle butts, knives or bayonets.

Each day, thousands of children are forced to crawl into the dark, dangerous mines of the Democratic Republic of Congo. They dig for coltan, sometimes with bare hands. Coltan is used to make electronic gadgets such as mobile phones, DVD players and laptops.

Child sexual exploitation is high in areas of the Democratic Republic of the Congo that surround coltan mines as impoverished children are forced to become sex workers for ‘coltan men’ in order to access food and shelter. Many have contracted HIV/ AIDS, with young girls also becoming pregnant as a result.

“We saw boys standing waist deep in toxic water, washing soil away from nuggets of copper. One, called Antoine, told us he was ten.” A reporter visits a copper mine in the DRC.

Working all day in copper mines, children as young as five in the Democratic Republic of Congo still may not be paid enough money to eat.

It is estimated that at least 40,000 children work deep underground in mines, including copper, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Children live in constant fear of being shot at by armed guards who might spot them sifting through gravel for illegal Congolese diamonds.

Diamonds offer a sense of false prosperity in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Young children working in mines sometimes hide diamonds in their mouths in order to make a small profit from diamond dealers.  More often than not, “the children are cheated and end up dead at the bottom of an empty diamond pit”— IRIN, humanitarian news and analysis.

Children that labour on gold mines in countries such as the DRC are exposed to mercury, which is used to separate the gold out from the sediment. Mercury poisoning leads to both physical and neurological disorders.

In the areas of intense conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, such as in the east, children are abducted and used as child soldiers. They are also forced into gold mining, which continues to fund militias. As fighting has subsided in other parts of the country, control of these mineral rich areas is still being fought over.

Ex-child soldiers, particularly older boys, who were forced into gold mining by militias continue to work in mines to earn money. This is because they often have had no education and are cut off from family members, leaving them with few other options.