Judge dismisses former slaves’ case against cocoa importers

Nestlé’s US unit and Cargill won dismissal of a lawsuit by six former child slaves from Mali, who sought to hold the cocoa importers liable for their captivity and mistreatment on farms in Ivory Coast.

A Los Angeles federal judge agreed with the companies that the former labourers could not sue in the US over wrongdoing that occurred in Africa and that the former child slaves had failed to show that any domestic conduct by the two firms was linked to the use of forced labour at their overseas suppliers.

“There are no allegations the defendants planned or directed the use of forced child labour from the US or that defendants planned or directed the underlying violations at all,” Judge Stephen Wilson said on Friday.

FORCED LABOUR

It is the second time the judge has dismissed the lawsuit, originally filed in 2005.

The former child slaves claimed US cocoa importers knew forced labour was being used in the Ivory Coast, the world’s biggest cocoa producer. The firms nevertheless provided farmers there with funding, supplies and training, they said.

The US court of appeals in San Francisco reinstated the lawsuit in 2014.

Nestlé and Cargill argued a series of Supreme Court rulings barred foreigners from bringing human rights cases under a US statute that had lain dormant for almost 200 years, until activists repurposed it to sue over abuses in countries such as Colombia, Nigeria and Myanmar.

Lawyers for the six Malian former slaves did not immediately respond to a request for comment.