Labor
Illegal labor
US Adds Vietnam, Cambodia, Brunei to Human Trafficking Blacklist
Human trafficking worsened considerably in Southeast Asia in 2021, with the United States government adding Vietnam, Cambodia, and Brunei to its trafficking in persons blacklist and downgrading Indonesia. In this year’s Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report, released on Tuesday, the U.S. State Department scrutinized 188 nations’ efforts ...
Sebastian Strangio
Sex workers have long been disapproved of in Thailand. Now they are calling for their billion-dollar industry to be recognised
It is hard to imagine, but Pattaya’s near-deserted “Walking Street” used to teem with revellers, as pulsating music filled the air and neon lights flashed until the early hours. Before the pandemic, the coastal city south-east of Bangkok was a buzzing party scene, and was once described by the Lonely Planet travel ...
South-East Asia correspondent Mazoe Ford and Supattra Vimonsuknopparat
Sex workers fighting for human rights among world’s most ‘at risk activists’
Sex worker activists are among the most at risk defenders of human rights in the world, facing multiple threats and violent attacks, an extensive investigation has found. The research, published today by human rights organisation Front Line Defenders, found that their visibility as sex workers who are advocates ...
Sarah Johnson
Forced labor: Thailand put on US human trafficking watchlist
Thailand has been downgraded by the United States in a global report on human trafficking because the Southeast Asian nation’s government “does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.” In its 2021 Trafficking in Persons Report, in which Thailand has been downgraded ...
UCA News reporter, Bangkok
Epidemic Reconstruction Reveals Gambling and Trafficking of Migrant Workers are Major Sources of Ongoing COVID-19 Spread
As many as 45 provinces have been infected by the infection cluster first exploding among migrant workers communities in Samut Sakhon, while several more have been added to the list by the clusters involving gambling dens and local gambling such as cock fighting The disease control ...
B.Tribune
PM warns against illegal migration brokers at border
Prime Minister Hun Sen has urged Cambodian people to work within the country and avoid being deceived by brokers who illegally send them to Thailand for work amid the COVID-19 pandemic. “Please don’t be deceived by a broker. We have to work in our country. Some ...
Ry Sochan
Trafficking warning in Asia as coronavirus pummels economies
Before lockdowns, curfews, and safe distancing, Thodsapone Kitta would go door to door, visiting low-income families in Thailand’s northern Nan province, a poor, mountainous region home to hill tribes and rural farmers where people are vulnerable to trafficking. For Thodsapone, a member of The Freedom Story, ...
Caleb Quinley
100s of Children in Cambodia Work in Brick Factories, Report Finds
Hundreds of children work in Cambodian brick factories, according to a survey by labor groups. A government spokesman denied the report’s findings. The Labor Ministry last year launched a campaign to end child labor in brick kilns and announced it would crack down on brick kiln ...
Leonie Kijewski
The plight of human trafficking survivors: Back from hell but to what?
Nguyen Thi Bien cannot speak Vietnamese properly since she was trafficked to China 28 years ago and virtually lost her mother tongue. She returned to Vietnam in August after Chinese authorities raided and deported undocumented immigrants. More about how she returned later. Cut to the present. In a countryside ...
Sen, Phan Duong
A warning for Vietnamese illegal migrant workers
Nguyễn Gia Liêm, Deputy Director of the Department of Overseas Labour, under the Ministry of Invalids and Social Affairs, talks to the Thời báo Kinh tế Việt Nam (Việt Nam Economic Time) on the issue of illegal migrant workers Which European countries have officially accepted Vietnamese ...
News Desk