A civil society group called the Human Rights Research and Advocacy Consortium (HRRAC) has released a report exposing sordid details of the harsh working conditions and illegal labor practices found in mining operations across Afghanistan.

The report is based on surveys conducted at sixty mines in different provinces around the country. Among the most concerning revelations are the following: child labor, low wages, abusive management practices, absence of safety equipment, lack of food and water supplies and the presence of dangerous toxins.

"Mine workers are in a very dangerous situation," HRRAC head Attaullah Khan Atta told TOLOnews on Wednesday. "Widespread corruption in mining contracts has resulted in labor abuses and the owners do whatever they desire; if the government does not pay attention in this regard we will lose workers in these mines."

Economists and political commentators alike have long agreed that the Afghan government has not taken full advantage of the country's mineral wealth.

Systemic corruption is said to exist in the mine contracting process, which allows many of the country's mineral resources to be wasted and often given away to power-brokers with little interest in protecting workers rights or pursuing broad-based development. The failures of Afghan oversight authorities have, in turn, opened the door to illegal, informal mining operations around the country.

Officials from Ministry of Mines and Petroleum (MoMP) have maintained that it is the illegal mines that are responsible for many of the worst labor abuses, such as those documented by the HRRAC report. Meanwhile, the ministry has denied any culpability for the continuation of illegal mining and placed blame instead on the shoulders of the Afghan security forces.

"The security forces are not cooperating with us," MoMP policy head Najibullah Ahmadzai told TOLOnews. "For example, a few days ago, in Samangan province, the ministry told the Interior Ministry that a mine was being extracted illegally, but the ministry did not take any action and as the result we witnessed the deaths of a few workers."

Ahmad Javed Noorani, a member of the Natural Resources Monitoring Network, echoed the MoMP's stance. "In order to prevent the illegal extraction of mines, all the ministries must cooperate with the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum - this is the duty of all security institutions," he said.