Modern Slavery

Many of the big brands like Apple, Samsung and Sony are profiting from child labor in Africa. Modern electronics have minerals that come from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a war-torn place rich in must-have materials that are rarely found elsewhere. It's estimated that more than half of the world's cobalt supply comes from the DRC. About 20% of it comes from “artisanal miners,” who are women and children as young as seven who scavenge for rocks containing cobalt in the discarded by-products of industrial mines, and who wash and sort the ore before it is sold. Exposure to cobalt dust can result in “hard metal lung disease,” which is deadly. India has a large portion of its "workforce" powered by child-labor. A 2015 report by the International Labor Organization (ILO) puts the number of child workers in India aged 5 to 17 at 5.7 million, out of 168 million globally. While there are no provable links to International Corporations, there are there are more than 45 million people trapped in modern slavery. You simply can’t get that many people trapped into slavery without big corporations being behind it.