Rights group calls on Ghana to end child labor in gold mines

A rights group estimates that thousands of children are working in Ghana’s gold mines, violating international laws prohibiting child labor in hazardous industries as well as Ghana’s own Children’s Act, which prohibits those under 18 from working in mines.

But the insatiable global trade in the artisanal gold procured from Ghana’s small-scale mines drives the industry in the country, which, according to a Human Rights Watch report released on Wednesday, is the one of the world’s top ten producers of the precious heavy metal.

According to the rights group’s researchers, children as young as nine are being exposed to dangerous work environments, with toxic materials, including mercury, lifting heavy loads and working 14-hour days.

Chris Albin-Lackey, senior researcher in the Business and Human Rights Program at HRW told Al Jazeera that while it's unknown how many children work at the mines in Ghana, it's clearly a significant issue.

“I think what we know is that unlicensed mining sites, child labor is quite common ... it's a pervasive problem across the whole sector,” he said.

According to the report, roughly one-third of the gold mined in Ghana comes from essentially unregulated, often unlicensed small-scale mines located in remote regions.

Albin-Lackey also said it's unknown how much money is being made off the backs of the child laborers as “Refiners are not transparent about how much artisanal gold they buy from the small-scale mines that use underage labor.”

While the issue of child labor might be a “complicated one,” he said, “having kids work in the most hazardous of occupations — these extremely dangerous environments — is extremely black and white.”

The impact of these conditions are devastating to the health of the children, causing long-term spinal damage, brain damage from mercury exposure to respiratory disease caused by the dust produced by crushing ore.

The rights group spoke to a number of teens who said they became ill as a result of working in the mines.

"[the work] is difficult, because I work at the crushing site, and there is smoke from machines, the machines are hot, and I inhale the dust. ... After inhaling the dust and fumes, and I go home to sleep, in the morning I see blood in my spit,” a 16-year-old named Samuel told researchers.

“It can last for a week after working. I also get a cough that can last for a week. Once I missed a whole week of school,” he said. The boy had been working in the mine at that point for five years.

An unknown number of children are injured in on-site accidents and when the mines collapse, and at least one has died.

The report also found that while consumers tried to avoid buying gold from conflict zones where human rights violations can be rampant (such as the Democratic Republic of Congo), there are no procedures in place to make sure that gold entering the market isn’t sourced from child labor. In fact, some local traders told HRW that they bought gold directly from children.

HRW urges Ghana to enforce its child labor laws and to create enforcement of safety regulations at the artisanal mines, while also encouraging global refiners who source gold from the country to take action and demand that child labor be removed from the industry.

“Ghana should lead the way in Africa by developing a comprehensive strategy for safe, professional, and child-labor-free gold mining,” said the study's lead researcher Juliane Kippenberg.

Albin-Lackey also noted that the group had produced similar reports on other countries, such as Mali, adding that: “The idea is not to single out Ghana as being worse than other countries ... the idea is to look at [it] as a microcosm of a much bigger problem with the chain of supply in gold.”

The group does not recommend a boycott on Ghanaian gold.

Al Jazeera called Ghana's permanent mission to the United Nations for comment, but did not receive a response.

While Ghana’s largest gold exporting companies dealt exclusively with licensed mines, the rights group found that sufficient due diligence was not being done to ensure that child labor did not enter the supply chain along the way.

These mines often employ children from either impoverished or broken homes, where the survival of the entire family depends on what little they can earn in the mines – between $1.5 to $6.25 per day. 

According to the International Labor Organization, Which marks World Day Against Child Labor on Friday, there are roughly 120 million child laborers between the ages of 5 and 14 around the world.

Child mining falls under the UN organization’s Worst Form of Child Labor Convention, which includes “work which, by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out, is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children.”

The convention has been ratified by 179 countries, including Ghana.

Al Jazeera