Behind the glamour of Asia's economic rise there still lurks modern-day slavery, with estimated 23.5 million people forced to work in various businesses operating throughout the region.
The number is equal to two-thirds of the 35.8 million people worldwide who are victims of human trafficking, forced labour, debt bondage, servile marriage or commercial sexual exploitation, according to the 2014 Global Slavery Index (GSI). The report, by the Australian-based Walk Free Foundation, was released in Jakarta recently in cooperation with Migrant Care, an Indonesian watchdog group for migrant workers.
The index covers 167 countries where slavery exists in some form, including 27 in Asia Pacific, which in turn includes all 10 Southeast Asian countries. In Asean, Cambodia had the highest percentage of the population enslaved and the third highest in Asia. Thailand, Brunei and Malaysia were sixth, seventh and eighth respectively in Asia. Myanmar was 10th, Vietnam 13th, Laos 14th, Indonesia 17th and the Philippines 18th. Wealthy Singapore was 24th.
For businesses exploiting low-cost and no-cost labour, it is becoming increasingly difficult to hide from scrutiny. Consumers around the world want to know that the goods they buy have been made in accordance with ethical practices all along the supply chain. Many large businesses, especially in developed countries, have responded by tightening enforcement of standards at their suppliers, most of them in the developing world.
"It affects how consumers see these businesses' products," Katharine Bryant, a researcher at the Walk Free Foundation told Asia Focus at the report launch. "There's an incentive for businesses to end modern-day slavery, so there's no reason for them to keep turning a blind eye to this practice."
But while sweatshop factories turning out clothing or electronics tend to get most of the attention, there are far worse forms of modern-day slavery. In Southeast Asia and some other regions, individuals and even whole families remain enslaved through debt bondage or bonded labour in construction, agriculture, brick making, garment factories, domestic household work, manufacturing or fishing vessels in their own countries or abroad.
"In Indonesia, there are an estimated 714,100 people in modern slavery and they mainly work as domestic workers or labourers in agriculture and the fishing sector," Bryant said.
The report says that men and boys in Indonesia are lured by labour brokers to work on oil palm, rubber, and tobacco plantations, where they are subject to physical abuse, face restricted movement, are forced to work excessive hours for little or no pay, and live in squalor.
The country's fishing industry also uses adults and children who are forced to work on boats, in factories, and on jermal or fishing platforms or offshore live-in fishing vessels, it said.
But given the high mobility of the Indonesian migrant workforce, with an estimated 700,000 Indonesians going abroad annually, and an estimated 4.3 million to 6 million already working abroad as of 2012, there are also Indonesians who are enslaved on foreign fishing vessels.
Boby Anwar Maarif, a spokesman for the Indonesian Migrant Workers Union, told Asia Focus that there have been cases in which Indonesian seamen were trapped in hazardous working conditions in Taiwanese vessels.
He cited a case in which he and fellow activists sought the release and repatriation of 74 Indonesian seamen stranded in South Africa after the Taiwanese vessel they worked in was impounded by the local port authority for lack of proper documentation. In the process, Boby said the seamen told him about the inhumane treatment they had endured. Their Filipino, North Korean and Vietnamese crewmates told similar stories.
"They had to paint the ship's planking while standing in a buoy in the middle of the ocean," said Boby. "They were also lured to catch protected fish such as sharks in exchange for a bonus, but in reality they never get it, not even their salaries."
Guntur Wicaksono, an official in charge of foreign placement of Indonesian workers at the Manpower Ministry, acknowledged the problem, saying that government agencies were in the process of fixing it. The main focus is on the recruitment process, to prevent job seekers from falling into the traps of scam recruiters. As well, overlapping laws and regulations related to seamen working on foreign vessels need to be addressed.
"Many of them work 24 hours a day for very low pay. I personally think that we should impose a moratorium on placement of Indonesian seamen in foreign vessels," he said.
Migrant Care executive director Anis Hidayah said Indonesian migrant workers on Malaysian plantations faced similar dire conditions, especially as many of them are undocumented, making them more prone to exploitation.
"We call on the new government of President Joko Widodo to put an end to the costly migrant workers' placement process that is monopolised by private recruitment agencies and install a new public service to recruit and to place migrant workers abroad," she said.
The report also showed that in Thailand, an estimated 475,300 people or about 0.7% of the population, are trapped in modern slavery. As well, there are as many as 3 million migrant workers in Thailand doing so-called 3D jobs — dirty, dangerous and demeaning — in which men, women and children have been subjected to forced labour and sexual exploitation. The main areas of concern are the sex industry, forced begging, domestic work, fishing, manufacturing, and agricultural industries.
"There have been cases of Thai nationals being trafficked nationally and internationally, as well as an influx of trafficked migrant workers from neighbouring countries such as Cambodia, Laos or Myanmar," Bryant said.
The report recommends that the Thai government should reform employment-based visas so that migrant workers can change employers without losing legal status and without having to obtain their first employer's permission.
As for the business sector, the report recommends that businesses importing Thai seafood products including subcontractors multiple tiers deep, should conduct in-depth supply chain mapping to identify product origin.
"The situation in Asia reflects the low-skilled labour used at the production stage of the global supply chain," Bryant said.