British American Tobacco has set itself the goal of becoming the leading company in the sector, knowing that it must be able to select and apply the better business strategies. But as one of the major tobacco companies in the UK, British American Tobacco is known to purchase tobacco from Indonesia, where it cannot guarantee that the tobacco is not produced with child labour. Although all tobacco companies in the world have a responsibility to monitor and investigate how tobacco is harvested on their farms, they still cannot control the actual process applied in cultivation. According to independent.co.uk, Human Rights Watch conducted research in 2014 and 2015 into tobacco farming in Indonesia, interviewing more than 100 children under 18 working there. These children are putting their health and well-being at risk by working to manually harvest tobacco, Human Rights Watch said. Many of these children have in fact suffered from nausea and vomiting due to excessive contact with tobacco. Children are known to work long hours on these farms, without even wearing protective clothing while handling this tobacco. These sure sound terrible, especially when it is the company's responsibility to ensure that no children under the age of 18 work directly with tobacco. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayBritish American Tobacco is one of the multinational companies that has committed to complying with the fair conventions of the International Labor Organization (ILO). These companies in the agreements have agreed that the minimum age for children to work is 15 years, while the minimum age for dangerous jobs is 18 years. Yet they still can't guarantee, because they say they can't be "everywhere at the same time." British American Tobacco said its subsidiary Bentoel takes the issue of child labor very seriously. “We do not employ children in any of our operations worldwide and we make it clear to all our farmers and suppliers that child labor will not be tolerated. In Indonesia, however, children often participate in agriculture to help their families and to learn farming methods and skills from their elders,” BAT said. The International Labor Organization (ILO) also knows that working while children are at school can be a normal part of growing up in poor communities, due to the rural environment in which they are located. British American Tobacco is said to be working with the Eliminating Child Labor in Tobacco Growing Foundation (ECLT) to tackle extreme child labor in these areas of Indonesia. Not only in Indonesia, British American Tobacco also promised in 2016 to investigate some of its farms located in Bangladesh after Swedwatch, a Swedish campaign group, uncovered the truth that the farms use workers to grow and process the tobacco, carrying loads, cutting tobacco. stems and cure the tobacco. These children are reportedly pulled out of school to work on the farm for 16 hours a day. These work activities certainly increase the health risk of these children, because they are highly exposed to tobacco plants, dust and smoke. Simon Cleverly, head of corporate affairs at British American Tobacco, said the company had indeed investigated the report's findings but found no evidence of children's rights and human rights abuses. He further stated that the.
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