In The News

About 600,000 illegal workers, most from Burma and the rest from Laos and Cambodia, work in Thai factories for about one third of regular wage rates. The Thai government offered to legalize migrant workers from Burma, with the condition that they return first to their homeland and verify citizenship. Such a condition amounts to a death sentence in Burma, a nation under rule of a military junta,...

US multinational companies that rely on factories overseas often tout how their strict labor rules protect human rights. For example, Wal-Mart stops doing business with factories in China after four warnings on wage or scheduling violations. But factories under contract with multinationals have learned how to circumvent the regulations by hiring coaching firms that fake employee payroll records...

Every year, trafficking of children produces $10 billion worth of trade. Forced child labor is endemic in desperately poor areas of the world, and the trade in child workers is the modern-day vision of slavery. Journalist Sharon LaFraniere spent time with a group of children, some as young as six, and details their fatigue, pain and hopelessness. In countries where parents cannot afford to feed...