Luxury perfume brands may be linked to child labor
Kyiv • UNN
Luxury perfume brands Lancôme and Aerin Beauty allegedly used jasmine harvested with child labor in Egypt, according to a BBC investigation.
An investigation by the BBC revealed child labor in luxury perfume chains - jasmine used by Lancôme and Aerin Beauty suppliers was harvested by minors, UNN reports.
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Luxury perfumes may be linked to child labor. A BBC investigation into perfume supply chains found that jasmine used by Lancôme and Aerin Beauty suppliers was harvested by minors.
Industry insiders told the BBC that several companies that own many luxury brands are squeezing budgets by paying low wages. For example, in Egypt, jasmine pickers confirm that the corresponding pay policy forces them to involve their children.
It is worth noting that the jasmine used in Lancôme Idôle L'Intense comes from Egypt, which produces about half of the world's jasmine flowers.
It is not known exactly how many of the more than 30,000 people involved in Egypt's jasmine industry are children. But in the summer of 2023, the BBC filmed in the region and spoke to many residents who said that the low price of jasmine meant they needed to involve their children in their work.
The BBC notes that their correspondents witnessed that in four different locations, a significant number of pickers working on small farms that supply the main factories were children under the age of 15. Undercover video footage confirmed that of the jasmine pickers were children aged 12 to 14.
The UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, Tomoya Obokata, said he was concerned about the evidence presented by the BBC, which included secret filming in Egyptian jasmine fields during last year's harvest season.
On paper, they [the industry] promise so many good things, such as supply chain transparency and fighting child labor. If we look at the footage, we see that they are not actually doing what they promised.
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