A human rights organization, International Rights Advocates (IRA), accuses Apple, Microsoft, Tesla, the parent company of Google and Dell of profiting from child labor in cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and launched a collective action against them in the United States.
The complaint was filed on Sunday, December 15, in a court in Washington, on behalf of 14 unidentified victims, family members of children killed in the collapse of tunnels or walls, or children mutilated in the same circumstances .
Cobalt is a rare metal, crucial for the manufacture of mobile phone batteries and electric vehicles. But the extraction and marketing conditions in the DRC, the world's largest producer, are hotly contested.
"Conditions worthy of the Stone Age"
"The explosion in the technology sector has led to an explosion in demand for cobalt", explains IRA in a press release. Cobalt is "Operated in the DRC on conditions worthy of the Stone Age, extremely dangerous, by children who are paid one or two dollars a day to supply the cobalt used for expensive gadgets manufactured by some of the richest companies in the world", continues the association.
According to the complaint, the accused companies are fully aware of the conditions under which the cobalt is extracted. "If the stakes were not as serious", it would be "Tempting to laugh" derisory measures they have proposed to remedy them, it is written in the document. The association plans to add other groups to the list.
The DRC, which is rich in mineral resources, remains one of the least developed countries in the world. And the richness of the underground contributes to fuel the armed conflicts which have torn apart the eastern part of the country for more than twenty years.
