Labor

Thai authorities must step up witness protection for a major human trafficking trial with the accused including an army general and one investigator fleeing the country fearing for his life, activists said on 24 December as the first witnesses gave evidence. The case includes 88 defendants allegedly ...

A group of seven Vietnamese and Cambodian girls were freed during a raid on a brothel in Battambang province on 23 December in which three suspected brokers were arrested, according to anti-human trafficking police. Officers entered the nameless “massage parlor” in Kamrieng district’s Boeng Raing commune at ...

They are mired in debt bondage, their pay slips are slashed by hidden fees and fabricated taxes, and they’re forced to work excessive hours in slave-like conditions absent of breaks and without the guarantee of overtime pay. This is the lot of migrant workers who ...

Ongoing protests by striking garment workers in the Svay Rieng province town of Bavet spiralled into “anarchy” on 22 December after protesters pelted police with rocks, aggravating an already volatile situation and spurring national authorities to begin mediation efforts. Two military police were injured in the encounter, ...

Thailand is preparing to take migrant workers from three other ASEAN nations under memorandums of understanding (MoUs) for the upcoming ASEAN Economic Community. Labour Minister General Sirichai Dithakul met on 22 December with delegates from Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia to discuss the MOUs. Thailand has already signed MoUs with Myanmar and ...

Thai authorities have detained 43 Lao women, some of whom appear underage, for illegally entering the country to work in the sex trade just two days after the Lao parliament passed an anti-human trafficking law to ensure protection for victims and punishments for perpetrators. Passed on ...

A DNA test has confirmed that a corpse unearthed on Indonesia’s Benjina Island is that of a Thai crew member of a fishing trawler, Justice Minister Paiboon Koomchaya said on 16 December.   Indonesia earlier believed the body was a Cambodian national, based on the seaman’s book found ...

More than 200 workers at Htate Tan Myanmar garment factory in Hlaing Tharyar township’s industrial zone 4 have been protesting in support of a demand for unpaid wages since 14 December. Ma Moe Sandar, a clerk from the factory, told The Myanmar Times the factory had not ...

A deputy Metropolitan Police Bureau (MPB) chief in charge of handling human trafficking has been transferred to an inactive post after he complained about a heavy workload in handling human trafficking cases. National police chief Chakthip Chaijinda said on 15 December he had ordered the transfer of ...

The persistence of dangerous and demeaning forms of work remains a major challenge for the Cambodia’s development, according to the UN’s annual Human Development Report (HDR) launched on 14 December by the United Nations Development Programme. Dubbed “Work for Human Development”, the 2015 report finds the Asia-Pacific region home ...