For a long time,
they were just stones. But those days are gone. You can use a Gua Sha stone
not only as an anti-aging tool, but also to do something
good for your skin and relax your facial muscles. Some are supposed
to help against wrinkles; others, so they say,
are for happiness. ...lots of different crystals... ...and spirituality. I really believe in it... Minerals and crystals
have become big business. But looking behind
the scenes is difficult. We hope you understand, but we
do not comment on our suppliers. We want to understand
what’s behind this trend and where these stones come from. It’s not okay. It shouldn’t be okay. Who pays, and at what price? We’re on our way to Hannover to find out more
about this trend that’s become so
popular on social media. I personally love crystals. I feel like they hold a very,
very, very beautiful energy. Influencers show how to use
facial rollers and Gua Sha stones. ...and then out to the side. Roll over the area under your eyes
and get that lymphatic fluid moving. ...from your eyelid to your ear... ...seven times per side... ...and then you won't need
anti-aging creams anymore. And even stars are
talking about these stones. Hi Vogue. I’m Claudia Schiffer. -I'm Bill.
-It's Kendall. I'm Badmomzjay. ...and today, I’m going to
show you what’s in my bag. And reveal their
favourites in stylised clips. Lots of different crystals. This one is in the
shape of a heart. This is rose quartz.
Energy for love, and self-love. I seem like I’m not the
type for it, but I do have this. Will we also find this trend here, at
the crystal trade show in Hannover? Stones as far as the eye can see.
And lots of rose quartz. What brought you here today? I came with my wife. She’s interested in
minerals and crystals for their various
spiritual effects. She uses them while meditating. Normally there are just
classic stone collectors here. But there are also new fans. As kids you collected
them as a hobby. But I think, especially
in our generation, we’re re-finding the effects
all of these stones have on you. Right, and especially
in our generation there’s a lot on social media
about crystals and what they can do. I think that’s why there’s
this renewed interest. What kind of crystals
do you have at home? I have stones and jewellery. Stones that go on desks,
and yeah, also jewellery. Do you also have
facial rollers or Gua Sha? Yeah, rose quartz. Exactly, rose quartz. How did you become
aware of these crystals? Where did you learn about them? Social media. They’re trending
right now, especially on TikTok. These new guests
even have a name here. We call them our TikTok girls. They’re between 12 to 17 or 18. Some come after school,
some even before. And they’re pretty keen to buy. They like the classics
like rose quartz, amethyst, or the famous
gypsum selenite. We actually suddenly
sold out of those favourites last year between
March and June, also green aventurine.
We were baffled. If you have time,
could you show me on TikTok? Sure... There are also people
who talk about their benefits and the best way to use them. Do you know rose quartz? Rose quartz is the stone
for everything to do with love. In posts that make big promises, these crystals are touted
as esoteric marvels. Gemstones with healing
properties are trendy right now. This is rose quartz.
It’s a really wonderful crystal. It’s calming, and is something
of a protective crystal. It helps us develop compassion and it can also help
open our heart chakra. I really believe in it. Because for me, there’s
no reason not to believe in it. Many of the people we
speak to here in Hannover also believe in the
crystals reputed powers. The demand for these
stones is growing. But where exactly
do they come from? One place in particular is on
a lot of labels: Madagascar. Many of the retailers don’t want to
talk about their suppliers on camera. But we find one who does. Where do you get
your stones from? Do you go to the countries
directly or how does it work? No, I have good
wholesalers in Germany who have contacts
in those countries. For example,
this rose quartz is high quality rose quartz from
Madagascar, cut in Madagascar. But you should know that the
conditions there are very, very poor. The people are bearers
or shepherds by profession. There’s no education
system like ours. People have to start hauling stones
at the age of 14. That’s their job. So you would say this is a
kind of developmental support? It’s support within the framework
of what’s possible in their culture. If the country develops,
then the social system will too. But usually little support reaches
countries in the global south. Instead, they mainly serve as
cheap suppliers of raw materials. Miners often work under
dangerous conditions, something that’s been a
problem for a long time. A landslide in a mining
region in northern Myanmar has killed more than 90 people,
according to authorities. Many more are still missing. The jade industry is lucrative, but hardly any of it reaches
the people living here. Dusty hot goldmines in Asia, considered one of the
world's worst places to work. Only children can fit
into the narrow drafts. It is hunger that drives
most families here, forcing them to risk their lives
every day in the illegal mines. We can't find much on rose
quartz mines in Madagascar, except for an article in the
British newspaper The Guardian about the mining. According to this, the mining
conditions are devastating. We investigate further and find out that based
on export volumes, Madagascar is
one of the world’s top three export nations of
precious and semi-precious stones. The country sells quantities almost
as large as export giant Brazil. How is it that a relatively
small country exports so much? And do stones from Madagascar
also end up in Germany? To find out, we asked
large German companies which countries they get
their rose quartz products from, and who their suppliers are. Thank you very much for your email. We hope you understand, but we
do not comment on our suppliers. Great. Other companies
didn't respond at all. I hate these hotlines. Yeah... so our messages to the
companies didn’t really bear fruit. They were all tight lipped
or didn't respond at all. We decide to have a look at the
situation directly in Madagascar. But that’s not so easy. The Embassy does not
issue visas for filming without prior approval from the
relevant authorities in Madagascar. And then here’s a long
list of required documents... ...which took a while. I’m extremely stressed because
we’re flying Saturday morning. It’s Thursday today, and
we still don't have a visa and for that we need
a shooting permit. We’ve been told it’s on its way for
three days - but it’s still not here. In the end, it all worked out... ...just in time. Madagascar is the largest
island in the Indian Ocean. The country is around as big as
France, its former colonial power. We landed in Antananarivo,
Madagascar’s capital. Our colleague Holly
picked us up at the airport. She has been researching
this topic for a long time and knows a lot about
mining in Madagascar. The plan was for her to
accompany us for the whole trip. But she wasn’t the only one. On the very first morning, Madagascar welcomed
us with a chaperone, who works for the Ministry
of Communications. Olivia was to accompany
us from now on. This was a condition for
us to be allowed to film. Holly was also there that morning
and helped us out by interpreting. I was wondering
if it's like normal that film teams have to take
someone from the ministry with them. It's very normal...
very normal to do that. It protects them, it protects
each of us and our jobs. Yes, we are their companions.
But we’re not only that. We are also facilitators,
especially for these teams, as we are agents of the state.
We make things possible, help speed up processes, for
example, when going somewhere. What a strange situation. We just met the woman who will
be accompanying us the entire trip. We have to see what
the smartest move is now. We’ve come up with
a few plans to lose her, because we clearly can’t have her
with us when things get a bit tricky. No one at the mines
will talk with us freely if there’s someone from the
ministry standing next to us. We had initially planned to
go directly to a mining area. But we decide it’s better to take
Olivia to a more harmless place first, in the hopes that we can
find a way to go without her. We started with an
innocuous tour of the capital. We needed two cars,
because our complete team, driver, interpreters and
Olivia were coming along. It quickly became apparent that things are very different
when you’re in such a large group. It makes it much harder to have normal conversations
with people on the ground. I have to say, I’d rather it were just
two of us walking through the streets. The woman from the ministry is
also wearing a bright blue vest, with the word ‘media’ on the back. So everyone knows,
ok, they’re here... It actually says
‘media supervision’... It's just... very obvious. This is not undercover. We drive back to the
hotel to meet with someone who works for Transparency
International Madagascar. Valéry oversees everything to do with
mining at Transparency International. He tells us the miners’ situation
is a most urgent problem. The number of miners
are increasing every year. So we have up to 500,000 people that
are working in the mining sectors. But we don't know, we
don't have a full detail about their numbers
or their identity. So that’s also one
of the problems. We don't know who they are. They're just flocking
from here to here and moving from one
location to another. We learned from
Valery that currently most mining in Madagascar
takes place without a permit, also because the government
put a freeze on new permits in 2011. Around 80 percent of mines are
therefore makeshift or ‘artisanal’, with human bodies
rather than machines pulling the crystals
out of the ground. We wanted to go
and see these mines. But we were worried our state agent chaperone could
cause problems for the workers. Especially as immediately
after our interview, she went to question
Valéry, and took notes. It’s a very strange situation. I went over to find
out what she’s doing. She’s asking him
what he told us. To be honest,
I'm a bit stressed, because I told him that
we want to go to the mines. Luckily, Olivia doesn’t
hear about those plans. To be on the safe side,
instead of going to the mines, we go to the coastal
town of Toamasina. The town is the most important
trading port in Madagascar. We want to find out what
routes the rose quartz takes — from the mines to the port, and
from here to all over the world. We need three permits to
be allowed to shoot in the port. We’d submitted the
applications before our trip. But the port director doesn’t accept
the verbal agreement from customs. So we have to
leave the premises. Instead of being able to observe rose
quartz being loaded onto the ships, and interviewing
workers and exporters, we find ourselves back
outside the port facility. I'm a bit annoyed because
now we can’t go to the port even though we were initially told we had all of these
20,000 necessary permits. Olivia, our supervisor from
the Ministry of Communications, also wasn’t able to help us,
contrary to what she’d said. And that wasn’t all. So it turned out this woman
tested positive for Covid, which made the ridiculous
situation even more absurd, because she started
coughing two or three days ago. Fortunately, we were
still testing negative. We continued on our journey,
heading to Antsirabé. Olivia had to go into quarantine. Meaning we were able go to
the rose quartz mines without her. Our base was in Antsirabé,
the largest city in the region. Travel times in Madagascar
tend to be long, so we set off early
in the morning. It’s around 5 a.m.,
I’m still really tired. We’re going to the mines now. It’s a three hour drive plus a walk. Let’s see what awaits us.
In any case, things are tense. According to the World Bank, about 80 percent of
Madagascar’s population lives below the
international poverty line. Rural areas in particular are poor. Pretty much the only jobs here
are in agriculture or in the mines. To get to one of these mines,
we have to leave the paved road. We just came to a mine that
we know is run by one family. But we can't go
to the mine itself. It's closed. There was an accident and
someone was seriously injured. Our search continues. Our interpreter helps
us ask questions as we look for a mine
that’s still in operation. We've just received the location
of a mine and are on our way. I look like I'm on safari. And it’s great. You’re wearing a
Jack Wolfskin Backpack! How typical. My grandma gave it to me. We are not sure how
people will react to us. We’re almost there now, it’s
just ten more minutes on foot. But we’re going to
first turn off the camera because we want to and should
meet people without it first. But they’re already expecting us. People here don’t mind us
visiting, and we can keep filming. Rose quartz deposits exist in
various places in Madagascar. Here, it’s under just
a thin layer of soil. Freshly mined, the stones
can be extremely sharp. This is one of the reasons
why working in mines is considered one of the
worst forms of child labor, and why labor laws in Madagascar prohibit anyone under the
age of 18 from working in them. These two boys seem to know that. They stop when they see us filming. But later, they get back to work,
carrying the heavy stones. One of them, Naina, is even willing
to talk to us. He’s 15 years old. My parents both work here too. I’m the eldest and I have three
younger siblings. They’re over there. My parents brought me here
because we don’t have enough money. We ask Naina what he would like
to change, if possible. I’d like to go back to school. In Madagascar, only 63 percent
of children finish primary school. According to Unicef in 2018, one fifth of 15- to 24-year-olds
couldn’t read or write. What I’d like to become? A doctor. Not all children from
Naina's village go to school. We don't know
how many there are. Often parents cannot
afford the school fees, so they take their
children with them to work. Another worker agrees
to be interviewed. My name is Sisia.
I’m 20 years old. I feel tired because of work. We talk to him about the two
younger boys working here. It is absolutely forbidden. But because the families
don’t earn enough, children have to
help their parents. It's not okay. It should not be okay. Sisia experienced a similar fate. When I was 16, I dropped out
of school to help my parents. Because life was unaffordable. I would have preferred to go to
school, but that's not how life is. Life got harder, so I had
to support my parents. We’ve brought along a rose quartz
facial roller from Germany. Have you ever seen
something like this? This is quartz. This is what it looks like when
it's been polished by machines. This is our product after
it's been mined here. Here we just dig it up and then people
abroad make something like this. Is that gold around it? That’s metal. Metal? And what’s it for?
Decoration? It’s amazing. It’s like a facial roller and you
have to go like this... Sisia and the other
labourers seem amused. But the mood changes
when we discuss the prices such products are
sold for in Europe. Sometimes they sell
them for like 40 Euros. Did you hear that? I’m rather shocked
that it’s so expensive. For me, that means the
price here should increase too. The bigger the pieces
the men mine, the better. They are paid 400 ariary per kilo
- equivalent to around 10 cents. The price of two cigarettes
in the village here. Many of the labourers live in
the village with their families. According to estimates, nearly
half of children in Madagascar between the ages of five
and seventeen have to work. We meet Tovo,
from the mine. He used to work in a gold mine.
Now, it’s rose quartz. He shows us his home, where he lives with his wife
and one-year-old daughter. This is our house. This is the bedroom. This is where we
cook and store things. When I started working,
I began to lose weight because I had to
provide for my family. My energy level went down. I could see it was not enough because
I was also providing for my family. And how is it now at
the rose quartz mine? It’s hard. It’s hard because when
there is no money, no income, we still have to live and
this is the only thing we have. So we have to work even if it’s hard. Could you imagine your
kid working at the mines? I wish they didn’t have to go there. But because of this poverty
they will have to work there. They’ll have to go there
if there is no other job because with our jobs, we can’t
really afford to send them to school. We learn that
typically children here start to work in mines
when they are 16, although some
are as young as 13. Even younger than that, they
help their parents in the fields. Back in the car, we feel strange. It hasn’t feel right for us white,
female journalists from Europe to examine people’s lives here. But we also believe it's important to report on something
few people are aware of. We drive to another mine. But along the way, a
problem presents itself. Although Olivia is back
in the capital with Covid, the Ministry of Communications
hasn’t let up. They've kept calling. So we
came up with an excuse. I'm now writing to the woman
from the Ministry of Communications to say that we’re
leaving on Sunday because we had too much
trouble at the start of our trip, and our editors won’t
give us any more money, and that we have
to go back to Germany. So we’re telling a big fat lie
and let’s hope she believes it. Luckily for us, there’s no cell
phone reception at the mines. Showing us the way there is Jimmy. Because even if we don't have
the Ministry with us anymore, we’re always either announced
or accompanied by someone. This time it’s Jimmy. Jimmy is a sort of
foreman at the mine. The owner hired him to supervise
the work here - and now us, too. He hardly leaves our side. This mine is very remote. And
the deepest we visit on our trip. According to research
by the Guardian, younger children are often
used for digging new mines. We’d heard rumours that
that’s also happened here, but we can’t confirm it. All the workers here
say they’re over eighteen. My name is Andrianasandratra
and I am 21 years old. I started mining when
I was 17 years old. A few months ago
this mine collapsed. The workers had
to dig the hole again. No, no one was hurt. It collapsed while
nobody was working. It collapsed when
we weren't working. We ask if the work is dangerous. Yes, if you aren't careful it is. We ask if he ever
saw someone get hurt. Yes, I did. He was in the
tunnel and the rocks collapsed. Did he die? Mmhmm. Jimmy, the foreman, says it's rare
that labourers get hurt. But that doesn’t look
to be the case to us. Almost everyone we’ve seen in the
mines has cuts on their arms and legs. It's a bit heavy. When we ask what the labourers
think about the working conditions, their answer sounds a bit forced. We are always careful. We recognize when it is dangerous.
Then we don't go down. Aren’t you worried? Well, we are worried. But this is how we earn money.
So we have to do it. Another worker tells us
that the work they do isn’t for people,
but for machines. They would like to use
machines themselves. But for that, they’d need
a permit from the state. And those are too expensive,
and stopped being issued years ago. We ask how heavy the stones are
that they have to carry. They can weigh up to 160 kilos.
Sometimes 120 or 110. We have seen how hard people
- including those underage — have to work in mines
to help feed their families. Without protective clothing,
without fixed working hours and sometimes for the measly sum
of just 10 cents per kilo. The longer we are here, the more absurd the hype around
the stones in Germany seems to us. We are back in Antsirabé, where many exporters who ship
rose quartz worldwide are located. We have an appointment with Fidy, who sells stones from
the last mine we visited. We make export and we collect, so when we have order we can
buy many stone, variety of stone. He shows us his depot. The stones, they are around 27 tons. 27, for one container? For one container.
This is for India. An order from India.
We will load this on Saturday. Fidy has specialised in
rose quartz since 2010. He shows us the containers
he ships out every month. This container is full.
Like these 27 tones inside. -And we put this after...
-Ah, the seal. And is this also China? Uh, no. This for India. Who buys the most
stones from you? Chinese and Indians. Until now I don't have customers
from Europe, from USA, from America. It's always Chinese and Indian men. He says that with rose quartz it's
easy to get large quantities quickly. It takes his miners around
one month to fill one container. We ask how the
demand has evolved. In 2015 nobody wanted to
buy rose quartz. One year. But now demand is up. We don't
know what will happen next year. Maybe down because we are depending
on markets in China. In the big city. The stones rarely
go directly to Europe. Instead, they usually go to China
or India, where they are processed. Do you think that
the companies who sell these products,
these processed stones in Germany, do they know... can they know
where the stones are from? I'm sure they don't know. Because I think German traders
buy in bulk from China. If asked, Chinese sellers
probably wouldn’t say that the stones are
from Madagascar, because they would be afraid that big customers from Germany
would come here directly. So I think they don't know...
I am sure they don't know. Our research in Madagascar
had come to an end. We learned a lot about the
mines and the working conditions and about how important
China is as a trading partner. Again and again, we were told
about the many Chinese buyers. We didn’t manage to
talk to one in Madagascar, but official figures
confirm what we were told. About half of the precious and
semi-precious stones from Madagascar are exported to China. Germany is ranked fourth
among export destinations with much lower trade volume. Back in Hamburg, we decide
to try a different approach to get in touch with
Chinese suppliers. Rather than identify
ourselves as journalists we set up a fake
start-up: Soa Organics, and pretended to sell
rose quartz products. Our colleague Max made a website
so that our story was more convincing. Why do you need a fake website? Well, because we know there
are traders here in Germany, and that it’s extracted in
countries like Madagascar. But we’re still missing
this intermediate step, the processing in China. So
that’s who we want to write to. Under the guise of
our fake company, we visit a Chinese trading platform
and search for companies that can supply us with 10,000
facial rollers made of rose quartz. Seconds later, our inbox explodes. We used the opportunity
to ask questions — including about working
conditions in the mines. Meanwhile, we also had
emailed some Chinese suppliers. Regarding information
about the working conditions. We know you are concerned about whether the rose
quartz is mined legally and about whether
child labour is involved. But we haven’t heard
anything about it. We do however have a video
of the mining. I hope that helps. Not really, because the video doesn’t
even show the work in the mines. As we were researching undercover, the Chinese suppliers didn’t
hesitate to speak with us. We even received mock
photos of product samples for SOA Organics, our company,
without even asking for them. But when it came
to finding out more about working conditions
in the mines, our fake start-up didn’t
prove very helpful. We decided to try again in person and headed to Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines,
a small town near Strasbourg. Once a year, one of Europe’s largest
fairs for minerals and gemstones takes place here. Look, it says Madagascar. Here again, there
is a lot of rose quartz. Many retailers are aware
of the risks miners face, and that they earn very little. Including this
wholesaler from Germany. We can't pay the workers.
We can only pay the owner. That's just the way it is
and it can’t be changed. But if the money
arrived directly at a mine, that would be better than
if a wholesaler pocketed it. Do your customers
care about that or are price and quality
the decisive factors? 80 percent price and quality. Very few people ask about it.
I’d say that's our responsibility. But do retailers here live
up to this responsibility? Doubtful, according to our
conversation with another salesman. What do you think about the
working conditions in the mines? For the workers? Awful. But you buy nevertheless? Like everyone. Like everyone.
What can we do? At least I try to improve
the condition of work of my own workers and of my suppliers
by paying quite decent prices. But what happens on the mine,
what can we do? But you see, even
in this small area there are at least seven,
maybe eight exhibitors who are carrying
Madagascan stones. And I guess no one is very involved
in what’s happening in the mine. And when customers asked about
working conditions or child labor? I can take any photos and
delete the one with the kids are on. That’s it. What do you want to see?
I will show you what you want to see. And don’t show you what
you don’t want to see. That’s it. If there are no children in the
photos, there’s no problem. Since 1 January 2023, the Supply Chain
Act has been in effect in Germany, which aims to protect the rights of the people producing
goods for the German market. But does it hold up to this promise? The law is supposed to force
German companies to ensure labor law and environmental
protection compliance throughout their supply chains. But the Act was severely
weakened before it was passed. For example, it now only
applies to larger companies. This is one of the reasons why
we are in Schwäbisch-Gmünd, to talk about this
with Norbert Barthle. Barthle played a key role in the
Supply Chain Act for the CDU party as a State Secretary in the
German Ministry of Development. It was one of the most
difficult legislative processes I encountered in my
entire parliamentary career. Our fiercest opponent
was Peter Altmaier, plus the relevant parliamentarians
from the Economic Affairs Committee. They showed fierce opposition. Amongst other stipulations, we’re told
Altmaier objected to the following: How deep should you go? Should the entire supply chain
be covered by the law or not? The business community has always said
only to the first supplier level. We contacted the former Minister
for Economic Affairs Peter Altmaier, who responded that the law could only
be passed because of this compromise. The new law obliges
German companies to ensure human rights compliance. But with indirect suppliers, only
after a complaint has been filed. We asked big retailers. But they usually didn't answer
or they were very evasive. Then we pretended
to be a fake start-up and asked the suppliers in China.
They were very willing to tell us where things came from,
from which countries. But when it came
to working conditions, the statement was always:
We can't say. But as a German company, that would be all I’d need under
the new supply chain law, right? In principle yes. Then you would
have fulfilled your responsibility. You asked. And if
there are no suspicions, if there are no complaints
or other information, then that’s all that’s
legally required. But isn't that too little? Yes, as I said, that was one
of the big points of contention: To what level of depth in the supply
chain and how binding do you go? I can imagine that things will
be a bit more binding in future. But for now, a stricter law
wouldn’t have been passed. Thank you very much for the interview. It was a pleasure.
I'm still working on this. Barthle is happy to have
gotten the law passed at all. But the law will
not change anything for the people we saw in Madagascar,
for the people in the mines. And that’s a bitter pill to swallow. Because as he said, German companies
can also just use this excuse, this supply chain law,
and say: We asked. But only up to the level
to which they have to. And that's China.
Not Madagascar. So what have we
learned from our research? We met people who
pay a high price — for products whose benefits
don’t justify that price. No one takes responsibility for the people at the
beginning of the supply chain, they are not heard,
or even seen. That's almost always
the story in globalization. And Germany’s Supply Chain Act
won't change that.
