Interpol has announced the rescue of more than 50 child slaves from cocoa plantations on the Ivory Coast during a series of raids in June, raising further questions about the integrity of the cocoa used by the world’s major chocolate manufacturers.
“Chocolate manufacturers have fed the public feel-good motherhood statements about how child labour in West Africa is no longer a problem. These raids smash that misconception,” said Tim Costello, World Vision Australia chief executive.
The 54 children – aged between 11 and 16 – were of seven different nationalities, demonstrating the transnational nature of child trafficking for labour on cocoa plantations. The children were unpaid and forced to carry massive loads. Girls were found to be working seven-day weeks, attending to housemaid duties when not working in the plantations.
“These raids have uncovered a sophisticated, multinational trafficking arrangement in West Africa. Children have been reduced to a commodity to be bought and sold.”
World Vision’s Don’t Trade Lives campaign has been lobbying Australian chocolate manufacturers to reassess their supply chains to ensure products that retailers and consumers buy are not unethically produced using the worst forms of child labour and human trafficking.
“As consumers, it is far more comfortable for us to suspend belief and keep eating chocolate. But the uncomfortable truth is that most chocolate manufacturers still cannot guarantee that their chocolate is free from child labour,” said Mr Costello.
“Again, I call on all chocolate manufacturers to show leadership and take real, meaningful action to ensure their cocoa is ethically produced.”
It is estimated that in the West African nation of the Ivory Coast alone, more than 600,000 children work on cocoa fields. About half of these children do not go to school.
Research in the Ivory Coast and Ghana – which together make up 60% of the world’s cocoa – reveals up to 80% of children in the cocoa fields are being exposed to dangerous practices such as the unprotected use of chemicals, carrying heavy loads, brush burning and using machetes.
https://www.interpol.int/Public/News/2009/CotedIvoire20090803.asp
http://www.donttradelives.com.au
Tim Costello is available for interview. Contact Dominic McInerney on 0428 584 809.