List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor

There are reports that children, as young as age 8, are engaged in the harvesting of açaí berries in Brazil. Evidence of child labor has been found in the city of Abaetuba, a major center for açaí berry production, in the State of Pará. Children are involved in the harvesting season from August until January each year, alongside their families. Most families in the region rely on the harvest as their main source of income. Reports and field research indicate that children are seen as extremely valuable to the harvest due to their physical stature and natural agility, qualities that allow them to climb the açaí berry trees’ tall and thin trunks more easily without the trees breaking. Açaí berry picking is considered to be a highly dangerous job in Brazil, requiring those involved in its harvest to climb great heights, sometimes up to 65 feet. Children engaged in açaí berry harvesting not only are required to scale very tall trees, but they also lack proper protective equipment, transport large knives with serrated blades in the back of their shorts, and are exposed to hot climate conditions and environments that include venomous insects and other dangerous animals.

Portuguese Translation

There are reports that adults in China are forced to produce aluminum used in manufactured goods. Reports indicate that Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, and other Muslim minorities from the XUAR are frequently subjected to forced labor in China through state-sponsored labor transfer programs. The Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC) is a government paramilitary organization in Xinjiang that runs labor transfer programs and owns aluminum companies. There is evidence that both XPCC and non-XPCC aluminum producers in Xinjiang have received hundreds of members of persecuted groups through labor transfer programs. 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

There are reports that children as young as 7 engage in illegal amber extraction in Ukraine. Children from low-income families in the Polesia region of western Ukraine, including in Rivne, Volyn, and Zhytomyr Oblasts, are particularly vulnerable to involvement in amber extraction. For example, one human rights organization reports that thousands of school children extract amber, and that their labor is essential to the amber industry. According to media reports and local government officials, child labor is systemic in the illegal amber extraction industry and is a growing problem. The amber extraction process creates large pits and exposes children to risk of injuries when extraction pits collapse. Children engaged in illegal amber extraction are also at risk of violence at the mining site. 

Ukranian Translation

ILAB has reason to believe that fishmeal, fish oil, and animal feed produced in Thailand are produced with an input produced with forced labor, specifically fish produced in Thailand. Fish from Thailand produced with forced labor was added to ILAB’s List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor in 2012. Tens of thousands of migrant workers from Burma, Cambodia, and Laos are exploited in forced labor on marine fishing vessels in Thailand. These migrant workers are paid little or irregularly, work up to 20 hours per day, live without adequate food, water, medical supplies, experience physical abuse, and often have their identity documents retained by boat owners. Thailand-caught marine fish produced using forced labor is sorted and often mixed with imported marine fish that may or may not be caught using forced labor, tainting the Thai fish product supply chain. The catch is sold to fishmeal processors, where the fish is cleaned and squeezed or dried to produce fishmeal and fish oil. Fishmeal is primarily used to make animal feed for shrimp and poultry, and 25% of Thailand’s marine fish capture is used to manufacture fishmeal for animal feed. Reports indicate that the majority of animal feed produced in Thailand is consumed domestically by shrimp and poultry farms, though Thailand exported $2.4 billion of animal feed in 2022 to the United States, Malaysia, Japan, Italy, and Australia. Research suggests that further downstream products of fish, such as cosmetics, supplements, pet food, shrimp, and poultry may be produced with an input produced with forced labor.

Aluminum from China produced with forced labor was added to ILAB’s List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor in 2024. There are reports that adults in China are forced to produce aluminum used in manufactured goods. Reports indicate that Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, and other Muslim minorities from the XUAR are frequently subjected to forced labor in China through state-sponsored labor transfer programs. The Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC) is a government paramilitary organization in Xinjiang that runs labor transfer programs and owns aluminum companies. There is evidence that both XPCC and non-XPCC aluminum producers in Xinjiang have received hundreds of members of persecuted groups through labor transfer programs. Labor transfers of this kind are undertaken involuntarily in the broader context of constant surveillance and under menace of penalty, including explicit and implicit threats of detention and internment and threats to family members. Sources indicate that approximately 17- 20% of China’s aluminum is manufactured in Xinjiang under these labor conditions. Aluminum from Xinjiang is used to produce aluminum-intensive auto parts in China, including parts of auto bodies, and auto-part components, including engine block alloy, aluminum sheet and aluminum coil, and aluminum wheel and chassis components. In 2022, China was the world’s largest aluminum manufacturer and the second-largest autoparts supplier to the U.S.

Chinese Translation

ILAB has reason to believe that raw sugar, refined sugar, molasses, rum, bagasse, and furfural produced in the Dominican Republic (DR) are produced with an input produced with forced labor, specifically sugarcane produced in the DR. Sugarcane from the DR produced with forced labor was added to ILAB’s List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor in 2009. Numerous reports indicate the widespread presence of forced labor throughout the sugarcane sector of the DR, including in plantations owned by private companies, state-owned entities, and small independent producers (colonos). Sugarcane workers in the DR, particularly workers of Haitian origin or descent, work and live under conditions of forced labor. Sugarcane is used to produce a number of sugar-based products in the DR. The U.S. imports nearly all the raw sugar and the majority of the molasses exported from the DR, while the EU imports all of the produced furfural. In 2023, the U.S. imported over $131 million in raw sugar from the DR. Research suggests that further downstream products of sugarcane, such as beverages, alcoholic beverages, candy, baked goods, processed food products, animal feed, paper, pulp, construction materials, biofuels, industrial chemicals, medicines, and medicinal alcohol may be produced with an input produced with forced labor.

Spanish Translation

There is evidence that children ages 5 to 17 are engaged in the production of baked goods in El Salvador. According to the Government of El Salvador’s Multi-Purpose Household Survey of 2015, a working child is considered to be engaged in hazardous child labor if the child is performing work that is hazardous according to national legislation. The survey estimates that 123,259 children ages 5 to 17 perform hazardous child labor in El Salvador, including using dangerous tools, carrying heavy loads, working with chemicals, working long or night shifts, and being exposed to dust, smoke, or extreme heat or humidity. Approximately 9,737 of these children in hazardous child labor are engaged in the production of baked goods. The release of this survey demonstrates the Government of El Salvador’s commitment to addressing child labor and its acknowledgement that data collection is vital to the design and implementation of sound policies and programs. 

Spanish Translation