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UN calls for an end to forced labor throughout Asia

The UN labor agency on yesterday called on China, Vietnam and other authoritarian Asian governments to end forced labor in detention camps, factories and brothels.

Complaints about forced labor are widespread in Asia, including China's network of labor camps, accusations that military-ruled Myanmar uses slave labor, and reports of forced prostitution elsewhere.

A regional official of the International Labor Office urged governments to start putting an end to it by picking "at least one forced labor challenge."

"You agree to tackle this with concerted effort and perhaps, where needed, with the support and assistance of the ILO," Constance Thomas, ILO director for China and Mongolia, told a regional meeting.

Delegates at the meeting came from the communist governments of China, Vietnam and Laos, as well as from Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore. Myanmar wasn't represented.

The ILO says Asia has three-quarters of the 12.3 million people believed to be in forced labor worldwide. In addition to people in government labor camps, they include women and children forced into prostitution, workers compelled to pay off migrant smugglers and children.

China has been criticized for its vast network of "reform through labor" camps. Police are allowed to send crime suspects to such camps for three years without trial.

The ILO is working with Beijing to reform labor camps by organizing study tours and seminars, said Roger Plant, the Geneva-based head of the ILO's program to combat forced labor. Both China and Vietnam "want to be seen as abiding by core labor standards, which is important for their trading relations," Plant said.

Chinese delegates at the conference referred questions to the main government representative, Guan Jinghe, who left the session without talking to reporters.

ILO officials called on Myanmar's military rulers to halt forced labor, especially of ethnic minorities considered a threat to the government.

The ILO also said workers should have the right to form independent labor unions, something that isn't allowed in China, Vietnam or Laos.

China typically bristles at criticism of its labor record, saying its constitution respects human rights and that it is reforming its labor camp system. A member of Vietnam's delegation defended his country's record.

"Many researchers have found there are no manifestations of forced labor in Vietnam," said the delegate. He said there was "the potential" for forced labor in police re-education centers and because of human trafficking, and the government was dealing with the issue. Vietnam has in the past called on its people to display patriotism by voluntarily contributing labor by building roads and other public works, he said.
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