Many things have changed in Albania in the past months, but not the fate
of the Bulqize children, who are still abandoning school to turn into
illegal miners.
Children of the poorest families in Buqlize gather each day in these piles of minerals, and dig to gather chrome.
Illegal gathering points pay them 3 ALL for kilogram, only to sell it to chrome exporting companies for 10 ALL per kilogram.
This destructive form of slavery knows no age, and starts even with pre-school children, who take buckets and pikes to work, rather than toys.
The entire town lives on this mineral. Children are able to tell that piece of stone from others, and collect it from the massives of stocks that have been created from the rubble through years.
These children are so tied to the chrome gathering that tey have abandoned school.
Concessionary companies and even the small local ones are changed constantly in Bulqize, and chrome extraction and export has often created involvements in crime, making this town even more poor.
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