"BAT faces landmark legal case over Malawi families' poverty wages", 31 October 2019

Human rights lawyers are preparing to bring a landmark case against British American Tobacco on behalf of hundreds of children and their families forced by poverty wages to work in conditions of gruelling hard labour in the fields of Malawi...

 ...The case...could transform the lives of children in poor countries who are forced to work to survive not only in tobacco but also in other industries...

...BAT is one of the most profitable companies in the world, making an operating profit last year of £9.3bn on sales of £24.5bn...it has distanced itself from the farmers by commissioning a separate company to buy a stipulated amount of tobacco leaf each year...

 ...BAT [said their] core policies “specifically state that we do not condone forced, bonded or involuntary labour; and that we do not condone or employ child labour...”...[They] said BAT made it clear to contract farmers and suppliers that exploitative child labour and forced and bonded labour would not be tolerated...