Victoria's real secret: child labour in Burkina Faso

The story of 13-year-old Clarisse

Bloomberg news has sent one of its reporters to Burkina Faso, which
resulted in a documentary about 13-year-old Clarisse Kambire. Cam
Simpson interviewed the girl, her family, neighbours and village
leaders. Their stories were confirmed by other children, who had to work
in the same degrading circumstances of being beaten, malnourished and
kept out of school.

According to the documentary, there is a lack of control of working
circumstances and local cotton farmers need to be educated more.
Furthermore, the rights of “enfants confiés”, as children vulnerable to
exploitation are called in Western Africa, are almost always overlooked.

‘Fair trade’ and organic

”If this allegation is true, it describes behavior that is contrary
to our company’s values and the code of labor and sourcing standards
that we require all of our suppliers to meet. These standards expressly
prohibit child labor”, says Limited Brands in an official statement on
its website. The company promises “to take swift action to prevent
the illegal use of child labor in the fields where we source
Fairtrade-certified organic cotton in Burkina Faso.”

“Clarisse’s labor exposes flaws in the system for certifying fair-trade
commodities and finished goods in a global market that grew 27 percent
in just one year to more than $5.8 billion in 2010. That market is built
on the notion that purchases by companies and consumers aren’t supposed
to make them accomplices to exploitation, especially of children”, as
Bloomberg rightly points out.

Fairtrade International says not to have had any knowledge of this
situation and promises to fully screen its activities in Burkina Faso.
The organisation also promises to start education programmes for local
farmers.