The Department of Labor on Thursday added nickel produced in Indonesia to a lengthy list of products made with forced labor, calling into question the world’s largest source of a metal underpinning the global shift to electric vehicles.
In a lengthy report, the department pointed to multiple reports from nongovernmental organizations, academic experts, consulates and news agencies about China’s role in forcing adults to produce nickel in Indonesia, which has the world’s largest reserves — about 24 percent of the planet’s deposits. The list is meant to shine a light on exploitation and hold companies accountable through laws, enforcement and due diligence.
“Forced labor taints the supply chain of other crucial minerals, including aluminum and polysilicon from China, nickel from Indonesia, and again cobalt, tantalum, and tin from the DRC,” Thea Lee, deputy undersecretary for international affairs at the Labor Department, said at a press conference in Washington, D.C. “Workers face abuses like excessive and involuntary overtime, unsafe work, unpaid wages, fines, dismissal, threats of violence, and debt bondage.”
The agency’s conclusions arrive as the Biden administration mulls Indonesia’s push for a critical minerals deal with the United States, a move that’s drawn bipartisan ire on Capitol Hill. The report raises forced labor concerns specifically with nickel produced in Indonesia that’s used in electric vehicles, batteries, semiconductors, defense, construction and metallurgy.
