Two tobacco giants accused of forced labor by Malawi farmers and children

British American Tobacco and Imperial Brands are seeking to invalidate a lawsuit brought against them in the UK by a Malawian farmers' group.

Several thousand Malawian tobacco farmers have filed a class action lawsuit for forced labour against two tobacco multinationals, British American Tobacco (BAT) and Imperial Brands (IB). The law firm Leigh Day, which is defending the farmers, intends to demonstrate that the working conditions they are subjected to amount to forced labour, involuntary labour and exploitation, as defined by Malawian law.

“ Fortunately, both companies in question are based here in the UK, which allows our courts to prosecute them. " said Martyn Day, head of Leigh Day [1]. He intends to refer to the UK Modern Slavery Act, the European Convention on Human Rights and the International Labour Organisation's definition of forced labour. For their part, BAT and IB are urging farmers to demonstrate that the tobacco they harvested was intended for them.

Difficult working conditions for farmers

The working conditions denounced include the displacement of thousands of farming families from southern Malawi to farms in the north of the country. There, these families must build their own homes with branches and leaves. The farmers work seven days a week and are only paid a fixed price at the end of the season, based on their production. The farm owners rent them land and lend them fertilizers, pesticides and tools. The families receive only a small portion of maize each day to survive, which they must mill at their own expense. The balance sheet at the end of the season is often negative, forcing the farmers to renew their contracts in a cycle of endless debt and impoverishment [1, 2].

The lack of profitability of these farms pushes families to use their children as free labour [3]. Children are thus taken out of school, put to work well before the age of 14 and exposed without protection to many chemical substances; their young age also makes them more vulnerable to "green tobacco disease", by absorbing excessive levels of nicotine through the skin.

The cynicism of the tobacco industry

The exploitation of children in tobacco plantations is a recurring accusation made against the tobacco industry. To defend itself, the industry designed the ECLT program in 2000, which was supposed to combat child labor in its farms but whose manifest ineffectiveness has been demonstrated [3, 4]. Here we find the virtuous discourse of the industry, which claims to rehabilitate its image through corporate social responsibility (CSR) but whose behavior, objectively, is the opposite of its statements.

In Malawi, for example, tobacco leaves can only be sold to three companies, which then resell them to multinationals. A simple increase in the purchase prices of tobacco to farmers would, however, lead to a much greater improvement in the living conditions and schooling of Malawian children than symbolic humanitarian actions [3]. Always keen to preserve its large margins, the tobacco industry prefers instead to play the opaque game by asking farmers' families to prove that a given company has indeed purchased their production, while refusing to provide the internal documents that would allow this to be established. Public access to the industry's internal documents, made possible by other convictions, often allows – but a posteriori – its prejudicial attitude to be highlighted.

Keywords: Malawi, farmers, children, forced labour, human rights, BAT, Imperial BrandsPhoto credit: © Crozet M. - International Labour Organization (ILO)©Tobacco Free Generation

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[1] Sarah Boseley, The Guardian, Tobacco firms in move to strike out Malawi exploitation case. Published on May 19, 2021, consulted on May 19, 2021. [2] Génération Sans Tabac, Decryption, Tobacco as an obstacle to development: the case of Malawi. Published January 21, 2020, accessed May 19, 2021. [3] Sarah Boseley, The Guardian, Child labor rampant in tobacco industry. Published on June 25, 2018, consulted on May 19, 2021. [4] Génération Sans Tabac, Child labour: UN Global Compact challenged over tobacco industry practices. Published May 4, 2021, accessed May 19, 2021.National Committee Against Smoking |