In a report scheduled to be made public on April 5 in Harare, Zimbabwe, Human Rights Watch (HRW) is expected to highlight ‘abusive practices such as hazardous child labor and the exposure of insufficiently-informed tobacco farmers and workers to nicotine poisoning,’ according to a story in New Zimbabwe relayed by the TMA.
HRW is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights.
It reportedly told New Zimbabwe that families involved in tobacco cultivation were vulnerable to nicotine poisoning and abuse, adding ‘[o]ur research revealed an industry fuelled by impoverished small-scale farmers and vulnerable workers – including young child workers – who need greater protection from Zimbabwean authorities and tobacco companies’.
The report, authored by Margaret Wurth, HRW researcher in the Children’s Rights Division, found that adults and children who were interviewed reported symptoms consistent with nicotine poisoning such as nausea, vomiting, headaches and dizziness.
And it found evidence of ‘excessive working hours without overtime compensation on large-scale farms, and problems with wages, including having their wages withheld or delayed, and or being paid less than they were owed’.
More labor issues coming
