Indonesia: Child Labor in Tobacco Farming

Release of Human Rights Watch report. Wednesday, May 25, 2016. Indonesia is the world’s fifth-largest tobacco producer, with more than 500,000 tobacco farms. Thousands of children, some just 8 years old, work in hazardous conditions on these farms, exposed to nicotine, toxic pesticides, and other dangers. This work can have lasting consequences for their health and development. Large Indonesian companies, as well as some of the largest multinational tobacco companies in the world, buy tobacco grown in Indonesia and use it to manufacture tobacco products sold domestically and abroad. None of these companies do enough to ensure children are not working in hazardous conditions on farms in their supply chains. Based on interviews with more than 130 child workers, the report documents how child tobacco workers suffer symptoms consistent with acute nicotine poisoning, handle toxic chemicals, and face other dangers. Human Rights Watch calls on the Indonesian government and tobacco companies to ban children from work that involves direct contact with tobacco.