List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor

There are reports that children mine lead in Bolivia. According to international organizations, NGOs, and mining sector experts, child labor is known to be present in the cooperatives sector in Potosí, where children are involved in mining ore that contains lead, zinc, silver, and tin. Children as young as age 13 work inside mines, where they haul heavy loads of ore, work in narrow tunnels at risk of collapse, are in close proximity to explosives, inhale toxic fumes and dust, and generally lack protective equipment. Some younger children and girls work with their families outside the mine sorting minerals.

Spanish Translation

There are reports that children ages 8 to 17 produce khat in Ethiopia.  According to a study from 2017, between 50 percent and 70 percent of khat workers in Wondo Genet’s Chuko town and Aweday, in Eastern Hararge, are children.  Sources estimate that 5,000 children in Aweday are connected to the industry, approximately 2,000 of whom are under age 15.  Although khat (Catha edulis) is legal in Ethiopia, the plant releases two highly addictive central nervous system stimulants – cathinone and cathine – whose acute and long-term neurological effects include khat-induced psychosis.  Children involved in khat cultivation, pruning, and bundling may become addicted to the drug due to contact with excretions from the plant.  Moreover, child laborers are unable to attend school and they work long nights.

Amharic Translation

There are reports that adults are forced to produce jujubes in China. Research indicates that Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, and other Muslim minorities are subjected to forced labor in jujube harvesting and processing while being held as prisoners and as a result of state-sponsored labor transfer programs. China is the world’s largest producer of jujubes, and more than 50% of production takes place in Xinjiang. Jujube producers work with the Chinese government to make use of ethnic minority groups for exploitative labor, often receiving financial incentives. Academic researchers, media, and think tanks report that companies and government entities frequently engage in coercive recruitment, limit workers’ freedom of movement and communication, and subjected workers to constant surveillance, exclusion from community and social life, physical violence, and threats to family members.

Chinese Translation

ILAB has reason to believe that indium produced in South Korea is produced with an input produced with child labor, specifically zinc mined in Bolivia. Zinc from Bolivia was added to ILAB’s List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor in 2010 for child labor. Boys as young as age 13 commonly work in underground mines in Potosi and Oruro, where they are subjected to hazardous working conditions including narrow tunnels, heavy machinery, extreme temperatures, and exposure to dust and chemicals without ventilation. These conditions are widely found in the cooperatives sector, which produces 18% of Bolivia’s zinc. Zinc ore in Bolivia contains some of the world’s richest concentrations of indium, but workers are not compensated for the indium found in the zinc that they mine. Zinc concentrate from multiple sources is often mixed together, blending responsibly mined zinc with zinc mined with child labor, and subsequently exported. In 2022, South Korea imported over $385 million in zinc concentrate from Bolivia, representing 16.3% of its zinc concentrate imports, and some of these imports connected to child labor in the cooperatives sector in Bolivia were used to produce indium. South Korea is the world’s second-largest producer of indium, producing 22.2% of the global supply in 2022. This research suggests that further worldwide downstream products of zinc and indium, such as conductive glass, touchscreen devices, flatscreen devices, televisions, phones, tablets, semiconductors, solar panels, indium-tin oxide, and LEDs may be produced with an input produced with child labor.

There is evidence that children ages 5 to 13 raise hogs in Brazil. The ILO has found that generally children who care for farm animals may be at risk of exposure to potential health consequences, including injuries from kicks and infections from animal bites and exposure to harmful bacteria. The Government of Brazil’s 2015 National Household Survey considers all work performed by children below age 14 to be child labor. Based on an analysis of the survey, an estimated 5,896 child laborers raise hogs. The release of this survey demonstrates the Government of Brazil’s commitment to addressing child labor and its acknowledgement that data collection is vital to the design and implementation of sound policies and programs. 

Portuguese Translation