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Child Labour is seen throughout Africa in different cacoa farms of which provide cacao beans to the chocolate industry. An example of this child labour can be seen on Ivory Coast, located on the western side of Africa, where thousands of cocoa farms have been made. These farms are among the most important in the world for the production of chocolate. About two-thirds of the world’s cocoa supply comes from West Africa where, according to a 2015 U.S. According to a Labour Department report, more than 2 million children were engaged in dangerous labour in cocoa-growing regions.The children that work on these farms often crossed the border from the impoverished West African nation of Burkina Faso. Some children were trafficked to work on these farms as young as 12. These children are often deprived of many of their other child rights and often spend their days working hard in these farms for very little money, sleep in small huts in the woods and are unable to see their families or attend school.
There have been efforts to eradicate this child labour by some companies in the chocolate industry, and companies such as nestle, mars and hersheys have promised not to use cacou beans harvested through means of child labour several times over around 18 years, but this task has proven extremely difficult as it is very hard for these companies to trace the origins of their cocoa. Companies such as Hersheys can trace less than half of its cocoa back to the farms they came from, whilst companies such as Mars, M&Ms, and Milkyway are only able to trace 24% of its cocoa back to the farms they came from. Nestle is able to trace around 49%. Companies have made some major strides in attempting to reduce the amount of child labour, including building schools, supporting agricultural cooperatives and advising farmers on better production methods, however according to the pledge made to lawmakers, West African governments and labor organizations also bear some responsibility for the eradication of child labour. It is also a difficult issue to tackle as often it is poverty that leads to child labour.