FIVE major tech companies including Google, Apple and Microsoft have had a lawsuit filed against them in the United States for aiding and abetting the extreme abuse of children forced to labour in cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Representing 14 anonymous plaintiffs — made up of the parents/guardians of children killed or maimed in the mines or the mutilated children themselves — International Rights Advocates filed the federal class-action lawsuit against the firms on Sunday.

The rights lawyers say their clients have evidence that the corporations named in the lawsuit — Apple, Alphabet (Google), Dell, Microsoft and Tesla — have “aided and abetted the mining concerns that abused and profited from forcing the plaintiffs and other children to mine cobalt under conditions that led to their deaths or serious, crippling injuries.”