SIERRA LEONE: MANDATORY REPORT ON FORCED LABOR AND

UNCLAS FREETOWN 000261 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR DRL/ILCSR (MITTELHAUSER),G/TIP (STEINER) PLEASE PASS TO DOL/ILAB (RIGBY) E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ELAB EIND ETRD PHUM SL SUBJECT: SIERRA LEONE: MANDATORY REPORT ON FORCED LABOR AND CHILD LABOR IN THE PRODUCTION OF GOODS REF: A. STATE 43120 ¶B. GARMS E-MAIL 05/01/08 ¶C. GARMS/LEMAR CALL 05/07/08 ¶1. Forced and child labor are known to be problems in Sierra Leone, primarily for the provision of services and in diamond mining. Exploitation is also suspected in quarries, and the rubber, timber, and fishing industries. These particular industries are the subject of in-country research by an independent consultant contracted by DOL/ILAB through Macro International. While post intended to consider any gaps remaining from that particular research initiative, the researcher has yet to share her findings. Thus, pursuant to discussions with DOL/ILAB, poloff focused information-gathering efforts on forced labor in the gold/coltan mining sectors in Sierra Leone. ¶2. Meetings with government officials, international organizations, and non-governmental organizations, as well as a literature review, revealed no substantive information to suggest that exploitative child labor or forced adult labor is present in either. Gold mining is a very small part of the extractive industries, and, while not regarded as well-regulated, interlocutors were unaware of exploitative labor involved in that activity. Coltan is not currently mined in Sierra Leone. Embassy sources confirmed that there are no rumors or concerns that the one company holding a coltan prospecting license is exploiting its workers. PERRY