Child labour rife in Zimbabwe tobacco farms
Al Jazeera
Malpractice in Zimbabwes tobacco growing industry is rampant, an international human rights organisation has reported after an investigation,
reports Al Jazeera from Harare.
In a report launched in the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, on Thursday, Human Rights Watch said cases of child labour, worker exploitation and low pay are rife on the farms around the Southern African country.
Farm workers, the report noted, face serious health risk, particularly the younger labourers.
The report, titled A Bitter Harvest: Child Labour and Human Rights Abuses on Tobacco Farms in Zimbabwe, documents how children work in hazardous conditions, performing tasks that threaten their health and safety or interfere with their education.
Zimbabwes government needs to take urgent steps to protect tobacco workers, Margaret Wurth, childrens rights researcher at Human Rights Watch and co-author of the report, said.
Companies sourcing tobacco from Zimbabwe should ensure that they are not buying a crop produced by child workers sacrificing their health and education.
The report said child workers are exposed to nicotine and toxic pesticides, and many suffer symptoms consistent with nicotine poisoning from handling tobacco leaves. Adults working on tobacco farms in Zimbabwe also face serious health risks and labour abuses.
At one of the biggest auction floors on the outskirts of Harare, Al Jazeera witnessed how teenage boys and
girls were accompanying their parents, having to sleep at
the floor premises after travelling overnight to sell their tobacco.
Because they cannot afford to outsource labour, many rural families depend on the produce of tobacco, including underage children, who are forced to miss school or drop out altogether.
Child labour and other human rights abuses on tobacco farms in Zimbabwe are likely to tarnish the $900m tobacco industrys contributions to the countrys economic growth and improved livelihoods.
Human Rights Watch conducted research in the four provinces responsible for nearly all of Zimbabwes tobacco production. The report is based on interviews with 125 small-scale tobacco farmers and hired workers, including children or former child workers, in late 2016 and early 2017.
Human Rights Watch also analysed laws and policies and reviewed other sources, including public health studies and government reports.
The rights group discovered that the government and companies have generally not provided workers with enough information, training, and equipment to protect themselves from nicotine
poisoning and pesticide
exposure.
Human Rights Watch found similar conditions on tobacco farms in research in other countries, including the United States. But where governments have enacted strong laws against child labour, and provided extensive information on how to provide protection, such as in Brazil, there has been some progress in keeping children out of the fields and protecting workers.
Some of the worlds largest multinational tobacco purchase tobacco grown in Zimbabwe, either directly or at auction, including British American Tobacco, Japan Tobacco Group, and Imperial Brands.
Under human rights norms, companies buying tobacco from Zimbabwe have a responsibility to ensure that their business operations do not contribute to child labour and other human rights abuses.
Most of the multinational companies involved have policies prohibiting their suppliers from using child labour and engaging in other human rights abuses, but Human Rights Watchs findings suggest there are serious gaps in carrying out and monitoring these policies in Zimbabwe.
