BBC Eye’s documentary producers talk about issues around child labour in Egypt in a panel discussion after its exclusive screening at the MacRobert Arts Centre.
Following the Central Scottish Documentary Festival, the Macrobert Arts Centre was host to BBC Eye’s staggering documentary, “Perfume’s Dark Secret”. The evening started with a screening of the documentary which, safe to say, left the audience touched by the scheming origins of perfume. The documentary focuses specifically on the origins of Egyptian jasmine; a soft, little, white flower known for its sweet smell and loved for its romance.
BBC Eye investigators visited the jasmine fields of the Al-Gharbia region in Egypt and worked closely with an Egyptian family affected by the illicit work conditions. Heba, a mother of four children ranging from 15 to 5 years old, showed the team what their typical day working at the jasmine fields can be like. Striking footage was shown of Heba and her children working from as early as 3am, pestered by mosquitos, trying to gather as much Jasmine as they could lay their hands on, which was later weighed and reimbursed for the equivalent of $1.50 for 1.5 kilograms.
From child exploitation to wages that keep jasmine pickers below the poverty line, the documentary unveils the perfume industry’s secretive nature and uncovered serious breaches of human rights within it. Research found by the BBC Eye investigators exposed the relationships between ‘The Masters’ companies- such as L’Oreal or Estée Lauder- and fragrance manufacturers to be “informal and trust based”, as described by an unidentified informant from Givaudan, a Swiss Frangrance manufacturer. This means the masters are not directly involved in enforcing or checking the ethics in the source of their products and do not take accountability for breaches of human rights lower down in the supply chain.
Following the documentary, an insightful panel discussion was held, led by Dr Ashley Rogers alongside other University of Stirling lecturers; Dr Umair Choksy and Dr Vassilis Galanos as well as the documentary producer, Ahmed ElShamy and director, Natasha Cox.
The wisdom contributed by the academic panelists was important in deepening the understanding of the documentary as well as the dooming reality of it. Some may describe the issue as post-modern slavery, which was mentioned in the panel discussion, but as discussed by Dr Vassilis; the definition and identification of post-modern slavery is heavily linked with its social context.
As seen in the documentary, the core motivator for child labour is not enforcement through higher authorities, but rather the demand for income for families as parents are struggling to provide for their children. In Egypt, it is illegal for any child under the age of 15 to work between 7pm to 7am. However, in these cases, the crime really lies in the fact that these families are put into these positions where living below the poverty line is normalised, and have no other options but to rely on their children as young as 5 to bring paychecks to sustain the family’s needs.
Ahmed ElShamy and Natasha Cox also contributed to the discussion by describing their experiences in creating the documentary. After a year of investigating the matter, Perfumes Dark Secret was filmed over Summer 2023. They talked about the connections that were created with Heba and her family, and the community while filming. When the BBC Eye’s appearance and interest started to circulate through the communities, BBC Eye crew was generally met with content and a welcoming atmosphere.
The team stay in touch with Heba and her family to ensure they have the support they need after the publication of the documentary. Natasha Cox also mentioned that there has been interest about the Human Rights breaches at the jasmine farms from the Egyptian government. According to Ahmed ElShamy, prices for jasmine have increased since the release of the documentary but has done little for the jasmine pickers as the decrease in the Egyptian pound and increase in the cost of living has made this change virtually meaningless.
L’Oreal published a statement in response to Perfume’s Dark Secret: “L’Oréal is deeply committed to respecting and protecting Human Rights.
“We have worked to put concrete actions in place ahead of the next jasmine harvest in June… We are very disappointed that the BBC chose not to include our concrete actions in Egypt”.
L’Oreal Egypt has been involved in organising initiatives and programmes with non-profit organisations designed to “empower women”. However, their efforts towards challenging child labour have only been recent as a response to the documentary.
“No-one listens or speaks to us or cares about us” Heba says in the documentary, “people here are worth nothing.” When shown a bottle of perfume sold on market for $300 that Heba only sees 0.005 per cent of, Heba adds: “I want the people using this perfume to see the pain of the children in it and to speak up, so that the factory owners and their clients can see the pain of the children.”
Despite many changes needed within the perfume industry to guarantee safe and rightful conditions for the jasmine pickers, there may be some hope with the new and promising EU Due Diligence legislation which will keep companies responsible for any issues of Human Rights breaches throughout all stages of production. The law aims to ensure better Human Rights protection for workers, more transparency within businesses and better access to justice for victims.
The legislation will come into fruition for the first companies in 2027 and will be fully applied on July 29, 2029. According to DR Umair, this is a step in the right direction.
Feature Image Credit: BBC
