The European Commission is cracking down on forced labour. She presented this week a text which would ban on the territory the products resulting from this forced labor, for example those which come from the exploitation of the Uyghurs by China. Green MEPs believe that this idea does not go far enough.
This prohibition is intended to apply to products for which forced labor has been used at any stage of their production. A measure hailed by environmentalists, but which could be even more restrictive, explains MEP Yannick Jadot, who would like Europe to follow the example of the United States and its sanctions: “The strength of the American system is that from the moment a region is suspected of having forced labor, there is a ban.”
In particular, prohibit products made in China or in the DRC Republic of China resulting from forced labor. Dilnur Reyhan, president of the Uyghur Institute of Europe, does not say anything else. She even believes that entire sectors should be affected by these bans: “There are sectors most affected, such as the textile sector, given that 87% of cotton comes from the Uyghur region and it provides 20% of the world’s cotton. There are also telecommunications sectors such as major brands , like Huawei, or even Apple. So we can also target by sector in my opinion.”
Forced labor does not only concern China and the Uyghurs, 25 to 30 million people are said to be affected worldwide by the subject. Directions to Southeast Asia and Central America.
In Malaysia, a production of plastic gloves singled out
Asia Pacific is by far the region of the world where there are the most victims of forced labor and modern slavery, according to the World Labor Organization. In this area, Malaysia in particular finds itself regularly incriminated. It is a bit of a horse chestnut of the press in the country, regularly such and such a company finds itself in the black list of American customs after proof or suspicion of forced labor.
If in France, we often hear about forced labor for industries whose citizens are direct consumers such as smartphones, clothing or palm oil, there is a Malaysian industry whose first client is public procurement and which has been particularly scrutinized since the arrival of the coronavirus: that of rubber medical gloves. Worldwide, two-thirds are made in Malaysia. With the Covid-19, demand exploded while in the factories the conditions of the workers, often Bangladeshi or Nepalese, worsened. The four Malaysian medical glove giants (Top Glove, Hartalega, Supermax and Kossan), alone responsible for more than half of the world market, have all found themselves incriminated.
These revelations are not received in the same way among countries that import Malaysian gloves. In the United States, several giants of this industry have been banned from importing. In Great Britain, a complaint against the government has been lodged precisely aimed at the use by public hospitals of rubber gloves from incriminated Malaysian suppliers. Until then, France, she, rather made the ostrich. It must be said that there is very little transparency on the origin of medical gloves in France. In 2021, the Minister of Industry at the time, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, recognized however that there was a concern with Malaysian medical gloves, but not necessarily that of forced labor, since the minister mentioned only rising prices and the risk of supply shortages.
To no longer depend on these Malaysian gloves, several solutions have been put forward. In 2021, the French government was proud to announce the construction of a factory in Sarthe which is supposed to produce gloves for the French market from 2022. However, for now the factory is still not in operation, and it remains difficult to know whether it will be favored by public markets, which tend to operate according to the logic of least cost. Finally, the number of gloves that this factory could eventually produce, i.e. 1.5 billion per year, would probably not be sufficient for the French market, because if we compare this number, for example, with the figures concerning the import gloves in France, we go from simple to double. According to World Bank data, France imported more than 21 million kilos of medical gloves in 2019 (more than half of which came from Malaysia). However, according to industry standards, one kilo of gloves generally corresponds to 200 gloves.
In Mexico, the forced labor is extremely common
In Mexico, forced labor concerns both the poorest Mexicans and migrants from Central America. This practice extends to many sectors of the economy, such as agriculture, mining, domestic work and tourism to name a few. The Mexican authorities devote too few resources to combating forced labour. The case of day laborers forced to work interminable days in the fields particularly caught the attention of the authorities. Indeed, and this has been the case for several decades, forced labor is extremely widespread in the fields, particularly in the north of the country, but also in the coffee and sugar cane crops. The day laborers come from the poorest regions of Mexico and they emigrate to agricultural areas, where very often they are confined in inhuman conditions, crammed into unsanitary accommodation.
Employers force them to work using mainly two mechanisms: either they reduce them to servitude by taking over their debts, or they withhold their wages to force them to complete a cycle of harvests and threaten never to pay them if they do not not stay for a period that can go on forever. Migrants from Central America crossing Mexico are also highly exposed to forced labor and slavery in the fields. Cartels also target migrants to enlist them in illicit activities, whether it is drug trafficking or work in the opium poppy fields…
Efforts by the Mexican government to combat forced labor are limited.
In August 2022, the US State Department issued a report on Mexico’s failure to meet the criteria to eradicate forced labor and human trafficking that are included in the North American Free Trade Agreement. Even when labor inspectorates detect this type of practice, there are too few legal investigations that are carried out and sanctions against employers. In 2021, there were 35 federal investigations in Mexico relating to cases of trafficking and forced labor, compared to 133 investigations two years earlier. The protection of victims is also insufficient, insofar as they remain exposed to these practices despite the action of the authorities. The means allocated by the government to the fight against forced labor are increasingly weak and the corruption of certain authorities favors the persistence of these abuses.