Top Candy Bar Companies Employed Child Labor in Ivory Coast, Getting Sued by Laborious Children

American candy bar companies hired Joseph Kony to run their supply chain.

Disgraceful.

The Guardian:

Eight children who claim they were used as slave labour on cocoa plantations in Ivory Coast have launched legal action against the world’s biggest chocolate companies. They accuse the corporations of aiding and abetting the illegal enslavement of “thousands” of children on cocoa farms in their supply chains.

Nestlé, Cargill, Barry Callebaut, Mars, Olam, Hershey and Mondelēz have been named as defendants in a lawsuit filed in Washington DC by the human rights firm International Rights Advocates (IRA), on behalf of eight former child slaves who say they were forced to work without pay on cocoa plantations in the west African country.

The plaintiffs, all of whom are originally from Mali and are now young adults, are seeking damages for forced labour and further compensation for unjust enrichment, negligent supervision and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

It is the first time that a class action of this kind has been filed against the cocoa industry in a US court. Citing research by the US state department, the International Labour Organization and Unicef, among others, the court documents allege that the plaintiffs’ experience of child slavery is mirrored by that of thousands of other minors.

Ivory Coast produces about 45% of the global supply of cocoa, a core ingredient in chocolate. The production of cocoa in west Africa has long been linked to human rights abuses, structural poverty, low pay and child labour.

I wonder why Joe Biden isn’t trying to start a war with the Ivory Coast over this disgraceful scheme?

Surely, this is worse than rumors of a labor camp in China? No one is even denying that the Ivory Coast employs child labor.

Maybe Biden doesn’t want to get involved because these candy bars are just too delicious.

The solution to this probably is obviously to send American millennials to the Ivory Coast to work in these cocoa fields.

Sort of like that Dead Kennedys song “Holiday in Cambodia.”