Hardline on cotton

Catholic New Times, April 24, 2005

Western companies are knowingly profiting from child labour in the central Asian cotton industry, Ethical Corporation magazine reports.

Forced labour and other human rights abuses are common in the cotton fields of central Asia, according to findings published by the International Crisis Group.

In its report entitled The Curse of Cotton: Central Asia's Destructive Monoculture, the NGO described the inhumane conditions experienced by child workers in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.

"The cotton industry in these countries contributes to political repression, economic stagnation, widespread poverty and environmental degradation," says the thinktank.

In Uzbekistan, schoolchildren are routinely forced to work for up to two months in cotton fields, it is alleged, while child labour is still widespread in Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.

The research also highlights the fact that central Asian cotton is traded internationally by leading U.S. and European corporations, while western banks finance its production. The final product often ends up in well-known clothes outlets across the west.

Companies named in the report include the U.S. commodities giant Cargill, which is involved in sourcing cotton from middlemen in the region. The U.S. remains the biggest market for textile manufacturers in the region.

A spokesman for Cargill recently told the press families in developing countries need help in the fields. Many western cotton companies claim they have little influence on governments to improve labour standards in those countries.