Children toil in illegal Indian mines to supply minerals to some of the world’s biggest car makers, according to a new Guardian investigation. Vauxhall, BMW, Volkswagen, and Audi have all been implicated.

Child labour is rampant in the mica industry, a mineral used for the shimmery car paint used on millions of the vehicles we drive every day. And while the Indian government has pledged to crack down, child rights campaigners estimate that up to 20,000 children work in hundreds of illegal small scale mines.

We need to hold international car manufacturers accountable for the child labour abuses hidden deep in their supply chains. Vauxhall, BMW, Volkswagen, and Audi: consumers won’t stand for child labour.

Tell Vauxhall, BMW, Volkswagen and Audi to abolish child labor in their supply chains and pay compensation to families.

The Guardian documented children as young as 12 labouring in hazardous, leaking mineshafts. Meanwhile, girls as young as 10 were above ground sorting mica from other minerals.  

Some mines employ entire families who are bonded to mines through debt to mine owners and local moneylenders. Charging up to 200% annual interests, the mica industry holds such parents, and their children, in cycles of debt and exploitation.

In 2014, the cosmetics industry came under similar fire for its use of child-mined mica. But thanks to outrage from consumers like you and me, industry leaders like LUSH removed mica from its products altogether. We need the same commitment from car manufacturers. And that starts with letting BMW and others know we won’t put up with products made possible by the labour of children.