Amnesty International Has Labeled Kellogg's Company That Uses Slave Labor from Children in Order to Produce Its Products

The international human rights organization Amnesty International is slamming Kellogg’s and other companies that it says are profiting from child labor and other exploitative practices.



The new report, “The Great Palm Oil Scandal,” released Wednesday, “investigates labour exploitation on plantations in Indonesia that provide palm oil to Wilmar, which is the world’s largest processor and merchandiser of palm and lauric (palm kernel) oils and controls over 43% of the global palm oil trade.”




Wilmar provides palm oil to Kellogg’s and other producers of consumer goods.



The report states:



Amnesty International found serious human rights abuses on the plantations of Wilmar and its suppliers. These included forced labour and child labour, gender discrimination, as well as exploitative and dangerous working practices that put the health of workers at risk.



To document the use of child labor, Amnesty International interviewed workers, including several children. It concludes:



Some children started working from the age of eight years onwards and all were below 15 years of age. Most of the children help their parents in the afternoons, after attending school, and on weekends and holidays. However, some children have dropped out of schools and work for all or most of the day. Children carry heavy loads, as they have to carry sacks of loose fruits and some transport wheelbarrows full of heavy palm fruit bunches over uneven terrain and narrow bridges. They run the risk of injuries from repetitive movements, carrying heavy loads and from working in an environmental where they are exposed to chemicals.