Workers

A journey of 10,000 kilometres extolled by Beijing as an opportunity for development (and revenge on Italy's exit from the Belt and Road Initiative). But cotton and tomatoes from Xinjang are at the heart of the ‘policy of poverty alleviation through the transfer of labour’, which according to numerous reports is a form of forced labour.

With its 200,000 workers it is an important component of the local industry, but it can no longer compete on international markets. The collapse of the rouble is weighing on it, but also the higher labour costs compared to Bangladesh or Vietnam, which requires a qualitative leap in the promotion of its products.

More than five million seek employment over the age of 60 to survive. Those in the less developed regions in the north, east and south are in the greatest difficulty. In Bangkok 'only' 25% have to work. Public pensions are inadequate, difficult to access a private or company pension fund.

A course dedicated to their protection was held at the Caritas Village and attended by 200 women. Significant contribution made by migrant labour to the national economy through remittances recognised.

On a day when even among local politicians rhetoric about labour abounds, in Pakistan and Sri Lanka the most defenceless groups have tried to make their voices heard. Fr Bonnie Mendes: "Even the Church should value the feast of St Joseph the Worker more to defend their dignity".

May 1 in many Asian countries coincides with temperatures of over 40 degrees Celsius. Increasingly frequent conditions that - as a study by the Global Labor Institute on textile companies in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Pakistan and Vietnam explains - risk compromising workers' health and productivity without adequate mitigation measures.

Not even pro-Beijing trade unions are marching for workers' rights fearing “unrest”. All the attention is on mainland tourists, for whom the city (weather permitting) will launch a new cycle of fireworks displays at the port with an unprecedented budget.

Under pressure from local businessmen, Parliament wants to relax stringent regulations on the protection of the sea and working conditions on fishing vessels, which are often linked to human trafficking. The current law had been passed in 2015 under pressure from the European Union, which threatened a ban on local fish products. But now, with industrial production in crisis, Thailand hopes to catch up by 'liberalising' the sector.

The vast majority are in Russia and the People's Republic of China, despite being banned by the resolution against the North Korean nuclear programme. Part of their salary is retained by the agencies that expatriated them and goes to finance the North Korean government, which would like to increase this contingent to 400,000.

Data collected by İsig speak of 1932 'white deaths' last year, including 54 minors. For the current year, the double-digit figure has already been exceeded, with an upward trend compared to the past. The highest number of accidents in the summer season, when children are employed in the agricultural sector. The apprenticeship system Mesem of the Ministry of Education is in the crosshairs.

A new Ilo report puts the spotlight back on the plight of boys and girls under the age of 15 who are forced to work in the fields in freezing temperatures in the winter and extremely hot in the summer, exposed to the risks associated with the massive use of chemicals. Practices in force since the days of Soviet planned eocnomy.

Over the past decade, more than 110,000 Thais have left for Sweden and Finland, attracted by the promise of high wages and good working conditions only to find themselves often exploited and trapped by debt to middlemen instead. A scourge on which the Bangkok government does not intervene so as not to lose job opportunities and European tourists.