In 2022, Gunvor conducted a child labor risk mapping exercise across our operations with the assistance of our external human rights consultant. This process helped identify several areas that required special attention, including our road transportation operations in Colombia. 

Gunvor’s Colombian operations contract with companies specializing in the transportation of hydrocarbons, which in turn directly hire the drivers who transport oil in trucks; the risk mapping conducted on the various Colombian routes identified the presence of numerous cleaning stations where these trucks are washed. It revealed that children sometimes clean these trucks, which may contain hazardous materials that pose a health risk to children. As indicated in the ILO Conventions, this situation belongs to the worst forms of child labour, as it involves children under the age of 18 handling hazardous substances, as well as a general aspect of school dropout for many of these children.

In response to this situation, the HSEC (Sustainability) team in Colombia is working closely with the various transport companies to address this risk. To this end, they have incorporated several criteria to evaluate compliance with human rights and social responsibility aspects into their auditing processes and have conducted awareness-raising sessions for the companies.