New York (AFP)
Human rights organization accuses Apple, Microsoft, Tesla, Google and Dell's parent company of taking advantage of child labor in the cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and launched collective action against them in the USA.
The lawsuit was filed Sunday by International Rights Advocates (IRA) in a Washington court; 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 conditions of extraction and marketing in the DRC, the world's leading producer, are hotly contested.
"The explosion in the technology sector has led to an explosion in demand for cobalt," said IRA in a statement.
Cobalt is "mined in the DRC on extremely dangerous Stone Age conditions by children who are paid one or two dollars a day to supply the cobalt used for expensive gadgets made by some of the wealthiest companies in the world. 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" at the derisory measures they proposed to remedy them, it is written in the document.
The association plans to add other groups to the list.
The DRC, which abounds in mineral resources, remains one of the least developed countries in the world. And the richness of the subsoil contributes to fuel the armed conflicts which have torn apart the eastern part of the country for more than 20 years.
© 2019 AFP