List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor

There are reports that children, mostly boys as young as age four, are forced to excavate and process gravel in Nigeria. According to reports from the media and government raids, 5,000 children from Nigeria and Benin are working in forced gravel production in Nigeria. The children are trafficked from Benin and forced to work, on average for a total of six years, in gravel pits in the Ogun, Osun, and Oyo states. An NGO study revealed that hundreds of children had been trafficked from Zou province in Benin to work in gravel production; other reports have found that hundreds of children have been rescued from this forced labor and returned to other areas in Benin. These children are forced to work excessive hours and to sleep in the bush near the pits. They are threatened with physical violence and tortured by the work gang leaders, particularly if they fail to meet their daily work quotas. The children are forced to work under extreme, sometimes fatal, conditions.

There are reports that thousands of adult ethnic minority workers are forcibly employed in factories producing hair products such as wigs.  China produces more than 80 percent of the global market’s products made from hair and is the world’s largest exporter of these products.  Victim testimonies, news media, and think tanks report that factories, including for hair products, frequently engage in coercive recruitment; limit workers’ freedom of movement and communication; and subject workers to constant surveillance, retribution for religious beliefs, exclusion from community and social life, and isolation.  Further, workers in these factories can be subject to regular government propaganda, extremely long hours, and little to no pay.  More broadly, according to varied estimates, at least 100,000 to hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, and other Muslim minorities are being subjected to forced labor in China following detention in re-education camps.  In addition to this, poor workers in rural areas may also experience coercion without detention.  Workers can be placed at factories within the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, where the camps are located, or be transferred out of Xinjiang to factories in eastern China.

Chinese Translation

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

There are reports that children ages 5 to 17 work in hog raising in Ecuador. Based on the analysis of Ecuador’s 2019 National Survey of Employment, Unemployment, and Underemployment, an estimated 5,218 children under the minimum age for work are involved in child labor in hog raising. 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 release of this survey demonstrates the Government of Ecuador’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

There is evidence that children ages 5 to 17 raise hogs in Paraguay. In 2016, the Government of Paraguay published representative results from the Survey of Activities of Rural Area Children and Adolescents 2015. The survey considers a working child to be engaged in child labor if the child is below the minimum age for employment of 14 or the child is performing work that is hazardous according to national legislation. The survey estimates that 301,827 children ages 5 to 17 perform hazardous work in rural areas of Paraguay and indicates that children working in agriculture experience accidents and illnesses, including from using dangerous tools and handling chemicals. According to the survey, almost 13 percent of Paraguayan children engaged in child labor in agriculture do not attend school. The survey estimates that 199,333 child laborers raise hogs throughout Paraguay. Approximately 120,414 child laborers raising hogs are below the minimum age for employment in Paraguay. The survey indicates that more boys than girls are engaged in child labor in hog raising. The release of this survey demonstrates the Government of Paraguay’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

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.