Speaker A
Anger on the streets of Bangladesh, sparked by slavery claims of workers in Malaysia.
Australian companies face scrutiny over slave-made goods amid forced labor claims in Malaysia and concerns over Uyghur labor in China.
Key Takeaways
- Australian supply chains are vulnerable to forced labor and modern slavery risks.
- Current Australian anti-slavery laws lack enforcement and mandatory reporting mechanisms.
- Companies must improve due diligence and transparency to prevent exploitation.
- There is growing pressure on Australian businesses to address human rights abuses in global supply chains.
- Consumer awareness and pricing strategies are critical to combatting slave-made goods.
Summary
- About 200 Bangladeshi workers in Malaysia allege forced labor and high fees, linked to Australian company Ansell's supplier Mediceram.
- Ansell is criticized for inadequate due diligence on forced labor risks in its supply chain.
- Australia's anti-slavery commissioner calls current voluntary reporting laws weak and urges mandatory due diligence and import restrictions on slave-made goods.
- Experts warn Australia risks becoming a dumping ground for goods produced under modern slavery due to lax regulations.
- Slavery expert Fiona David highlights the need for reasonable pricing and transparency to avoid exploitation in consumer products.
- Medicem chairman denies wrongdoing, blaming human rights campaigner Andy Hall for the dispute and worker unemployment.
- About 30 Mediceram workers remain stranded in Malaysia, caught between hardships in home and host countries.
- Kmart faces legal challenges from a Uyghur community group demanding transparency about forced labor in its Chinese factories.
- Uyghur representatives highlight credible evidence of forced labor camps linked to products imported into Australia.
- Kmart expresses disappointment over the legal action, preferring direct dialogue with the Uyghur group.
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker B
Please everybody help.
Speaker A
This is Mafizur, making a desperate plea before being deported.
Speaker B
How I go back Bangladesh? Now I want to suicide.
Speaker A
He's one of about 200 Bangladeshi workers who flew to Malaysia on the promise of a good job.
Speaker A
Now they claim they've been subjected to forced labor and can't pay steep fees they were charged to get there.
Speaker C
I think it's incredibly traumatic for them, you know, they they are victims of modern slavery, and they've been treated like troublesome people.
Speaker A
The firm they worked for, Mediceram, supplied glove molds to Australian company Ansell.
Speaker C
I think it's need to be clear that Ansell is, you know, responsible for this situation.
Speaker C
From what we understand, they didn't do effective due diligence, even maybe they didn't do any due diligence at all before they started sourcing from the company, even though the risks of forced labor amongst Bangladeshi workers are so high in Malaysia.
Speaker D
Ansell says it's helping to feed the Mediceram workers who are marooned in Malaysia and is helping to get them home; it says it cut Mediceram off after it sacked the workers.
Speaker A
Australia's anti-slavery commissioner says laws making companies disclose slavery risks are too weak.
Speaker E
The current law is voluntary, people are asked to report, but they don't actually have any penalties if they don't report, and there's no measurement of the quality of what's done.
Speaker A
He's told a government review the law should force companies to undertake due diligence in their supply chains, and he wants curbs on slave-made goods coming into the country.
Speaker E
This is about trying to make sure we lift the standard so that all all companies are analyzing their risks, identifying those and taking action to address them.
Speaker D
So we could become a dumping ground for slave-made goods?
Speaker E
Uh look, I think it's started already, but certainly, I think we're at risk of becoming a seriously seriously impacted by unlawful or poor practice suppliers selling their goods into the Australian market because they can't get into other markets.
Speaker A
Slavery expert Fiona David says some products may be too cheap to be free from slavery.
Speaker F
I do think we have to think about what is a reasonable price range that consumers should be paying and what are the systems and processes that we require companies to have so that consumers know that what they're buying is not is not based on exploitation.
Speaker A
Mediceram's chairman says the company's gone broke as a result of the dispute. He denies it did anything wrong and blames human rights campaigner Andy Hall.
Speaker A
Any genuine compassion for workers should also apply to the Malaysian workers, who are unemployed because of the relentless false propaganda by Andy Hall.
Speaker A
Andy Hall says about 30 Mediceram workers are still in limbo in Malaysia.
Speaker C
We often say that the migrants are like caught between two hells, you know, a hell in their home country and a hell in the destination country.
Speaker A
Kmart is another big Australian company facing questions about slavery.
Speaker A
It is in court fighting a Uyghur community group that wants details about its Chinese clothing factories.
Speaker G
We're very concerned because all Australian Uyghurs have family members who have disappeared, and there's credible evidence of them being taken into these labor camps to work and make the very products that are entering into this country.
Speaker A
For the Uyghurs, the stakes could not be higher.
Speaker G
My people, the Uyghurs, are being genocided, erased, and disappeared into these camps.
Speaker A
Kmart says it's disappointed the Uyghur group took it to court rather than meet the company. The Uyghur group says it's spent a year explaining its concerns to Kmart.
Topics:modern slaveryforced laborAustraliaBangladeshMalaysiaAnsellMedicemUyghur forced laborKmartsupply chain transparency
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