Tesla and Apple among tech giants accused of aiding child labour in Africa

AKIPRESS.COM - Elon Musk's car company Tesla is among five of the world's tech giants accused of aiding child labour in Africa, Sky News reports.
A legal complaint on behalf of 14 families from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was filed on Sunday by International Rights Advocates - a US-based human rights non-profit group.
It accuses the firms - which also include Apple Inc, Alphabet Inc, Microsoft Corp and Dell Technologies Inc - of being complicit in the death of children who are forced to mine cobalt - a metal used to make telephones and computers - in a landmark lawsuit.
The complaint says the companies were part of a system of forced labour that the families claimed lead to the death and serious injury of their children.
It marks the first time the tech industry has jointly faced legal action over the source of its cobalt.
Images of children with disfigured or missing limbs were filed in court documents in the US District Court in Washington DC.
Six of the 14 children in the case were killed in tunnel collapses, while others suffered life-altering injuries, including paralysis, the complaint said.