Labor policy and administration

A “mafia” of recruitment agents is trapping Myanmar migrants to Thailand in debt bondage despite a 2017 law meant to fight exploitation in the kingdom’s notoriously shadowy job market, activists and workers say. Keep reading ...

Oxfam has indicated that Cambodia ranked 121 out of 157 countries in this year’s inequality index, a drop when compared to last year’s position of 111 out of 152 countries. The Commitment to Reducing Inequality Index 2018 said Cambodia’s current ranking is attributed to poor ...

The governor of Lao province Champasak, Bounthong Divixay, said that until Monday, the water level of the Mekong River is 49 centimeters above the warning line and over a hundred villages around the province are flooded, including 24 villages of the province’s capital city Pakse, ...

Migration within Southeast Asia is expected to increase as the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) continues to promote freer movement of skilled workers across the region. Better labour mobility will help create a highly integrated and cohesive ASEAN economy. But there are barriers to migration within ...

Hundreds of workers took to the streets in Myanmar on Tuesday to call for a living wage, while in Laos marchers asked for social welfare benefits and better protection for citizens working abroad, sources said. Meanwhile, in Cambodia, workers gathered but were forbidden to ...

After months of deliberation, Laos’ Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith announced this week that the country’s minimum wage will increase from 900,000 kip ($108) to 1.1 million kip per month. This rise is set to take effect from early next month. []Unlike neighboring Myanmar, Cambodia, and Vietnam, ...

This working paper examines whether legal labour migration schemes can be opened to humanitarian migrants who may otherwise become targets for migrant smugglers. Keep reading ...

The January 2 decision by the National Committee for Designating Minimum Wage to increase the minimum wage has left many dissatisfied, particularly within the garment sector. []In Thailand, Malaysia, and Vietnam, the garment sectors are about six times more productive than in Myanmar, while Cambodia and ...

Thai overseas investments in Cambodia and Myanmar have come under criticism for irresponsible business operations and human rights violation, which has also led to the first-ever class-action lawsuit against a Thai company in its home country. Keep reading ...

Women migrant workers in parts of Asia risk being deported if they become pregnant, forcing many to have unwanted abortions or abandon their newborns, researchers said on Monday. Migrant workers in garment and footwear factories are forced to undergo regular pregnancy tests, according to the ...