List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor

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

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 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 5 to 17 in Vietnam produce leather. The results of the Government of Vietnam’s National Child Labor Survey 2012, published in 2014, show that an estimated 1,426 child laborers work in the leather industry, primarily in the tanning and pre-processing stages and in dyeing animal skins. Approximately 74 percent of children involved in child labor in leather production are girls. Out of the estimated 1,426 child laborers who produce leather, about 580 are 12-14 years old and 846 are 15-17 years old. The survey considers a child to be engaged in child labor if the child is working an excessive number of hours per week for his or her age, or if the child is engaged in work that is prohibited for underage employees according to national legislation. 

Vietnamese Translation

There is evidence that children between the ages of 5 and 14 work in the production of leather goods in Mexico.  Based on an analysis of Mexico’s National Survey of Occupation and Employment – Child Labor Module 2017, an estimated 5,594 children work in leather goods manufacturing.  The release of this survey demonstrates the Government of Mexico’s commitment to addressing child labor and its acknowledgment 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 grow lettuce 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 9,397 child laborers grow lettuce throughout rural areas in Paraguay. Approximately 5,915 child laborers growing lettuce are below the minimum age for employment in Paraguay. 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

There are reports that children are involved in Zimbabwe’s lithium mining. Children work in artisanal and small-scale lithium mines in the provinces of Midlands, Manicaland, and Mashonaland East. It is estimated that hundreds of children are involved in lithium mining. Children who mine lithium often help their parents carry lithium ore or perform hazardous tasks including the use of hammers and chisels to break rock into a form to be sold to formal lithium companies.

ILAB has reason to believe that electrolytic copper products and lithium-ion batteries produced in China are made with an input produced with child labor, specifically copper ore produced in the DRC. Copper ore from the DRC was added to ILAB’s List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor in 2009 for child labor. Children mine, collect, crush, and wash copper ore in the DRC’s artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) sector in Haut-Katanga and Lualaba. This ore is sold and traded to processing facilities in the DRC, where copper ore mined by children becomes mixed with copper ore from a variety of sources. In 2021 and 2022, China imported over 63% of DRC’s copper—some of which was produced with copper ore mined by children— for further refining and use in a variety of electrolytic (high purity) copper products including wires, bars, billets, plates, pipes, tubes, foil, and fittings. Electrolytic copper and copper alloys are used to produce lithium-ion batteries in China. This research suggests that further downstream products of copper ore, such as electric vehicles, electrical equipment, electrical wiring, brass, steel, telecommunications products, and
construction materials, may be produced with an input produced with child labor.

There are reports that political prisoners in Belarus are forced to produce lumber. The Belarusian state penal system includes 20 state-owned woodworking enterprises employing approximately 8,000 prisoners, including hundreds of political prisoners. These enterprises use forced labor from political prisoners to produce various lumber goods such as laminated chipboard, planks, plywood parts, sawn wood, and pallets. Political prisoners include human rights defenders, journalists, lawyers, opposition politicians, artists, writers, trade unionists, and activists, imprisoned for expression of political views and peaceful assemblies against the government’s regime and repression. Political prisoners are singled out in the prisons by wearing yellow bibs, treated more harshly than regular prisoners, work long hours without a day off, and work under hazardous conditions that often result in injuries. Refusal to work is often punished with solitary confinement and sometimes with torture, as well as deprivation of food, water, or sleep.

Belarusian Translation

There is evidence that children ages 5 to 17 grow manioc/cassava 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 159,167 child laborers grow manioc/cassava throughout rural areas in Paraguay. Approximately 71,932 child laborers growing manioc/cassava are below the minimum age for employment in Paraguay. The survey indicates that more boys than girls are engaged in child labor producing manioc/cassava. 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

There is evidence that children ages 5 to 17 grow melons 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 8,879 child laborers grow watermelons and 5,292 child laborers grow melons throughout rural areas in Paraguay. Approximately 4,879 child laborers growing watermelons are under the minimum age for employment in Paraguay. The survey indicates that more boys are engaged in child labor producing watermelons and melons than girls. 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

There are reports that adults are forced to produce metallurgical-grade silicon in China. Research indicates that Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, and other Muslim minorities are subjected to forced labor as a result of state-sponsored labor transfer programs. Metallurgical-grade silicon manufacturers in Xinjiang receive members of persecuted groups through government-sponsored 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 ages 5 to 17 are engaged in collecting mica from abandoned mines, primarily in illegal mining operations in India. Children are primarily found mining in the major mica-producing states of Bihar, Jharkhand, and Rajasthan, often in lieu of attending school. NGOs and media sources have documented hundreds of children working in mica across these states. Children’s tasks reportedly include breaking apart rocks to mine the minerals, carrying loads of rocks, and sorting and separating mica from other mined minerals. According to media reports and interviews, children’s inhalation of mica dust has contributed to respiratory health issues. Children also reportedly experience other health and safety hazards, resulting in injuries such as scorpion bites and broken bones, or in some cases, even death in poorly-maintained and unregulated mineshafts. 

Hindi Translation

There are reports that children ages 3 to 17 produce mica in Madagascar, primarily in the southern provinces of Androy, Anosy, and Ihorombe.  A study published in 2019 estimated that 10,800 children are involved in mining and sorting mica.  Adolescent boys dig mines and risk injury from falling rocks as they use sharp tools to extract mica from underground with no protective gear.  Both boys and girls work long hours in the hot sun carrying heavy loads and are exposed to mica and sand dust throughout the production process.  Child laborers usually do not attend school, and girls working at the mines are particularly vulnerable to commercial sexual exploitation.

French 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 are multiple reports that adults are forced to work in the production of nickel in Indonesia. Indonesia has the world’s largest nickel reserves, with approximately 23.7% of the world’s known deposits. Large industrial parks are built as part of the Government of China’s Belt and Road Initiative to process nickel ore in Central and Southeast Sulawesi. Chinese companies have a majority ownership of these parks. The industrial parks employ an estimated 6,000 Chinese migrant workers in various capacities. According to NGO reports, workers are often deceptively recruited in China. After they arrive in Indonesia, many workers receive a lower wage than promised along with longer work hours. Workers regularly have passports confiscated by employers and experience arbitrary deduction of wages, as well as physical and verbal violence as means of punishment. Other indicators of forced labor in the parks include restriction of movement, isolation, constant surveillance, and forced overtime; all of which are reportedly common practices in the production of nickel in the industrial parks.

Indonesian Translation

ILAB has reason to believe that multiple palm oil products produced in Indonesia are made with an input using child labor and forced labor, specifically palm fruit harvested in Indonesia. These palm oil products include crude palm oil, crude palm kernel oil, refined palm oil, refined palm kernel oil, and oleochemicals.

Palm Fruit from Indonesia was added to ILAB’s List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor in 2010 for child labor and added in 2020 for forced labor. Indonesia produces most of the world’s palm fruit and palm oil. In 2020, refined palm oil from Indonesia accounted for 55.26 percent of global imports. In 2020, the U.S. obtained about 60 percent of its $1 billion in refined palm oil imports from Indonesia.

This research suggests that further downstream products of palm fruit and palm oil, such as cooking oils, animal feed, bakery items and baked goods, beverages, household and industrial products, personal care and cosmetic products, infant formula, and biofuels, may be produced with an input produced with child labor and forced labor.

ILAB has reason to believe that multiple palm oil products produced in Malaysia are produced with an input derived from child labor and forced labor, specifically palm fruit produced in Malaysia. These palm oil products include crude palm oil, crude palm kernel oil, refined palm oil, refined palm kernel oil, cooking oil (palm oil blends), oleochemicals, and biofuel. Palm fruit from Malaysia was added to ILAB’s List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor in 2009 for forced labor and added in 2014 for child labor. Research from NGOs and media reports continue to show tens of thousands of children work in the palm fruit sector in Malaysia. Similar reporting shows forced labor indicators are widespread in palm fruit plantations, particularly among migrant workers who face vulnerabilities during and after recruitment. This research suggests that further worldwide downstream products of palm fruit and palm oil, such as animal feed, baked goods, beverages, household and industrial products, personal care products, cosmetic products, infant formula, and shortening, may be produced with an input produced with child labor and forced labor.

There is evidence that children ages 5 to 17 grow onions 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 5,937 child laborers grow onions (cebollita en hoja) throughout rural areas in Paraguay. Approximately 3,850 child laborers growing onions (cebollita en hoja) are below the minimum age for employment in Paraguay. 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

There are reports that adult workers are forced to work in the production of palm oil in Indonesia.  The palm oil industry is labor-intensive and employs between 3.7 million and 8 million workers.  According to local media and NGO reports, thousands of individuals have been subjected to forced labor in the production of palm oil.  Many of the workers on palm oil plantations are internal migrants within Indonesia, some of whom had to pay high recruitment fees leading to debt.  It is widely reported that palm oil harvesters’ daily targets, which are set by companies, are unachievable within a 7-hour workday, compelling workers to work several hours beyond what the law permits without overtime pay because they fear steep deductions in wages if they do not meet their targets.  Individuals work in remote, isolated plantations with limited freedom of movement and communication.  Victims and local NGOs report that some workers who live on the plantation experience degrading living conditions, with no access to clean water or latrines.  Some workers who work with hazardous pesticides and fertilizers are not provided with personal protective equipment, and they experience health problems and increased risks of injury from exposure to dangerous chemicals.

There is evidence that children ages 5 to 17 grow peanuts in Paraguay. In 2016, the Government of Paraguay published representative results from the Survey of Activities of Rural Area Children and Adolescents 2015, a representative survey of children’s work in rural areas. 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 33,165 child laborers grow peanuts throughout rural areas in Paraguay. Approximately 15,384 child laborers growing peanuts are below the minimum age for employment in Paraguay. The survey indicates that more boys than girls are engaged in child labor producing peanuts. 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

There is evidence that children ages 5 to 17 grow pepper in Vietnam. Based on the Government of Vietnam’s National Child Labor Survey 2012, the results of which were published in 2014, an estimated 9,833 child laborers are involved in growing pepper. Approximately 49.9 percent, or 4,907, of these child laborers are under 15 years old, which is the minimum age for employment in Vietnam. Of the estimated 9,833 child laborers who grow pepper, 10.4 percent are 5-11 years old, 39.5 percent are 12-14 years old, and 50 percent are 15-17 years old. The survey considers a child to be engaged in child labor if the child is working an excessive number of hours per week for his or her age, or if the child is engaged in work that is prohibited for underage employees according to national legislation. 

Vietnamese Translation