Imagine at age seven, you were spending every day working in a dangerous cobalt mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), putting your life at risk so some teenager in another country can get the newest edition of the iPhone. To make matters worse, you’re working 12 hours a day yet getting paid less than a dollar for each (Banchiri) with no safety equipment. About 40,000 young children are facing this problem in the DRC today (Frankel).
These children shouldn’t be working, they should be going to school, playing outside, doing what normal children do. Instead, they are risking their lives in these dangerous mines. On top of that, these children, and adults who have been working there for their whole lives, are not nearly being paid enough. Many people from other countries are unaware of the suffering of over two million people in the mining industry (Nyirabihogo). As human rights researcher from Amnesty International, Mark Dummett, said, “Millions of people enjoy the benefits of new technologies but rarely ask how they are made” (Banchiri).
People may know miners aren’t getting paid enough, but do they really know just how little miners earn at all? Workers are so desperate for money that they often get into sometimes deadly fights just for a few francs for their families (Gordon). The fighting increases when mines wait months to pay miners. According to miners like John Bizimana, they “worked as long as five months without getting paid [...] During the months without pay, he says his family members sometimes went to bed hungry” (Nyirabihogo). While miners like John and their families starve, mines take their time getting payments to miners without any regard for their well-being. When miners are finally paid, they get the equivalent of one or two U.S. dollars for hours of daily back-breaking work (Banchiri). Thanks to the lack of payment, other issues including illegal mineral trafficking have come up (Nyirabihogo). However, that is far from the only illegal activity involving mines in the DRC.
Unfortunately, child labor is a normal occurrance in the mines. Worse, these children have no protective clothing and under harsh working conditions with heavy loads that could be the difference between life and death (Banchiri). According to a former child miner, Yanick Kalumba Tshiwengu, several of his friends died in the mines, with Yanick himself barely escaping with his life. This childhood trauma caused him and his remaining friends to start sniffing glue and gasoline (Gordon). Children in mines are put at risk constantly and haunted for the rest of their lives as a result. And how much is their pain and suffering worth? About a dollar, apparently (Banchiri). Not only are children forced to work in unsafe conditions, Yanick says, “There was a culture of rape and violence” (Gordon). These mines caused children to be exposed to many forms of trauma, which they will likely suffer from for life.
Luckily, charities can help these children escape the mines and live their lives, an example being the Good Shepherd International Foundation, which has intervened to save children from years of suffering. One child even said, “No good can ever come from the mines and I’d like to see them all closed so no child has the same experience as me” (Gordon). With the amount of resources coming from these mines into the tech industry, it’s unlikely that child’s dream will be fulfilled. And as for the low wage, dependence on cheap labor to stay in the market gives us reason to believe that it will be a long time before things get better.
These children shouldn’t be working, they should be going to school, playing outside, doing what normal children do. Instead, they are risking their lives in these dangerous mines. On top of that, these children, and adults who have been working there for their whole lives, are not nearly being paid enough. Many people from other countries are unaware of the suffering of over two million people in the mining industry (Nyirabihogo). As human rights researcher from Amnesty International, Mark Dummett, said, “Millions of people enjoy the benefits of new technologies but rarely ask how they are made” (Banchiri).
People may know miners aren’t getting paid enough, but do they really know just how little miners earn at all? Workers are so desperate for money that they often get into sometimes deadly fights just for a few francs for their families (Gordon). The fighting increases when mines wait months to pay miners. According to miners like John Bizimana, they “worked as long as five months without getting paid [...] During the months without pay, he says his family members sometimes went to bed hungry” (Nyirabihogo). While miners like John and their families starve, mines take their time getting payments to miners without any regard for their well-being. When miners are finally paid, they get the equivalent of one or two U.S. dollars for hours of daily back-breaking work (Banchiri). Thanks to the lack of payment, other issues including illegal mineral trafficking have come up (Nyirabihogo). However, that is far from the only illegal activity involving mines in the DRC.
Unfortunately, child labor is a normal occurrance in the mines. Worse, these children have no protective clothing and under harsh working conditions with heavy loads that could be the difference between life and death (Banchiri). According to a former child miner, Yanick Kalumba Tshiwengu, several of his friends died in the mines, with Yanick himself barely escaping with his life. This childhood trauma caused him and his remaining friends to start sniffing glue and gasoline (Gordon). Children in mines are put at risk constantly and haunted for the rest of their lives as a result. And how much is their pain and suffering worth? About a dollar, apparently (Banchiri). Not only are children forced to work in unsafe conditions, Yanick says, “There was a culture of rape and violence” (Gordon). These mines caused children to be exposed to many forms of trauma, which they will likely suffer from for life.
Luckily, charities can help these children escape the mines and live their lives, an example being the Good Shepherd International Foundation, which has intervened to save children from years of suffering. One child even said, “No good can ever come from the mines and I’d like to see them all closed so no child has the same experience as me” (Gordon). With the amount of resources coming from these mines into the tech industry, it’s unlikely that child’s dream will be fulfilled. And as for the low wage, dependence on cheap labor to stay in the market gives us reason to believe that it will be a long time before things get better.
Works Cited
Banchiri, Bamzi. “Was the Cobalt in Your Phone's Battery Mined by a Child?” The Christian Science Monitor, The Christian Science Monitor, 19 Jan. 2016, www.csmonitor.com/Business/2016/0119/Was-the-cobalt-in-your-phone-s-battery-mined-by-a-child.
Frankel, Todd C. “This Is Where Your Smartphone Battery Begins.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 30 Sept. 2016, www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/business/batteries/congo-cobalt-mining-for-lithium-ion-battery/?tid=a_inl_manual.
Gordon, James. “Cobalt Mining in the DRC: the Dark Side of a Clean Future.” Raconteur, Raconteur Media Ltd., 4 June 2019, www.raconteur.net/business-innovation/cobalt-mining-human-rights.
Nyirabihogo, Noella. “Delayed Paychecks Leave DRC Miners Scrambling For Options.” Global Press Journal, 27 Jan. 2020, globalpressjournal.com/africa/democratic-republic-of-congo/months-mining-no-paychecks-leave-drc-miners-scrambling-options-including-prospect-smuggling/.
Yeomans, Jon. “Africa’s ‘Artisan’ Miners Paying the Ultimate Price.” PressReader.com - Your Favorite Newspapers and Magazines., 7 July 2016, www.pressreader.com/uk/the-sunday-telegraph-money-business/20190707/281732681044750.
