Chinese companies are the actual owners and operators of the mines, responsible for the inhumane conditions. He explained that Congolese artisan miners often own the mines in name only. “They are unremunerated and exploited and the work is often fatal as the children are required to crawl into small holes dug into the earth,” Kyungu testified. Children are often exposed to radioactive minerals, injuries, and deadly and painful diseases as they work to extract the valuable ore. One such mine located in Kasulo is owned by the Chinese company Dongfang Congo Mining, he said. The artisanal mines “are often no more than narrow shafts dug into the ground, which is why children are recruited - and in many cases forced - to descend into them, using only their hands or rudimentary tools without any protective equipment, to extract cobalt and other minerals,” he said. Some children as young as eight work in the mine under dangerous conditions. Men ascend from a pit in a cobalt mine where about 4,000 artisan miners dig on Decemin Ruashi mine about 20 kilometers outside Lubumbashi, Congo, DRC. The Council on Foreign Relations attributes the inhumane working conditions, in part, to the instability of the DRC, “a country weakened by violent ethnic conflict, Ebola, and high levels of corruption.”Ĭongolese civil rights attorney Hervé Diakiese Kyungu testified at the hearing that children are trafficked and exploited because of their small size. For years, these small-scale operations have been notorious for human rights violations. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) produces more than 70% of the world’s cobalt, 15% to 30% of which is produced in artisanal mines. “The Chinese Communist Party’s quest for cobalt for batteries and lithium for solar panels to power the so-called Green Economy motivates human rapacity as an estimated 40,000 children in Congo toil in non-regulated artisanal mines under hazardous conditions,” Smith said. The hearing was entitled “Child Labor and Human Rights Violations in the Mining Industry of the Democratic Republic of Congo.” Christopher Smith, R-New Jersey, who chaired the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission hearing July 14. “On the backs of trafficked workers and child laborers, China exploits the vast cobalt resources of the DRC to fuel its economy and global agenda,” said Rep. Screenshot from YouTube videoĬhina is exploiting children in the Democratic Republic of Congo, forcing them to work under hazardous conditions to mine the cobalt that powers electronic devices and electric cars, witnesses at a congressional hearing on human rights violations testified this week. on the use of child labor in China-backed cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Congolese civil rights attorney Hervé Diakiese Kyungu testifying on July 14, 2022, at a congressional hearing in Washington, D.C.
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