Tech giants Apple, Alphabet (parent company of Google), Dell, Microsoft, and Tesla have been named in a lawsuit filed in the US that alleged that these companies aided and abetted the mines that forced children to work in dangerous conditions while mining cobalt in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The lawsuit was filed earlier this week in the US District Court of Washington DC by International Rights Advocates (IRAdvocates), a legal advocacy group that aims to promote “human rights and corporate accountability through legal advocacy and capacity building”.
The lawsuits were filed on behalf of 14 anonymous (or ‘Doe’) plaintiffs who are either guardians of children killed in tunnel or wall collapses while mining cobalt in the Democratic Republic of Congo or children who were maimed in such accidents.
The DRC has the world’s largest deposits of cobalt, an essential element of rechargeable lithium-ion battery in products made by all tech and electric car companies.
The tech boom has caused an explosion in demand for cobalt, but it is mined in the DRC under extremely dangerous conditions by children paid a dollar or two a day, IRAdvocates said.
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