About: forced labour
EU corporate due diligence law to learn from the French example
While the European Commission is due to present its proposal on Wednesday (23 February) to make companies accountable for their human rights and environmental compliance, all eyes are on France, which has been a trailblazer with its own due diligence law from 2017.
Chinese companies blame “misinformation” for difficult political climate in EU
62% of Chinese companies in Europe believe that the political climate has deteriorated for them. In a recent study, they blame “media disinformation” among other factors, a line commonly used by the Chinese Communist Party to discredit criticism.
Political commitments not enough to ratify EU-Mercosur deal, says French minister
Mere "political commitments" will not be enough to ratify the agreement between the European Union and Mercosur countries, a French cabinet minister told the informal foreign affairs trade council on Tuesday (2 March), citing environmental and agricultural concerns. EURACTIV France reports.
UK condemns Chinese ‘barbarism’ against Uighur minority
Britain on Tuesday (12 January) accused China of human rights violations amounting to "barbarism" against its Uighur minority, as it announced new rules to ban imports of goods suspected of using forced labour.
Narbaeva: Uzbekistan is determined to reform and put an end to negative stereotypes
Tanzila Narbaeva, the Deputy Prime Minister of Uzbekistan, told EURACTIV about her country's efforts to develop modern agriculture, eliminate child or forced labour and invest in human capital, especially women.
Gearing up for fair globalisation and accountable business
Every day goods produced by European companies abroad enter the internal market, tainted by serious human rights violations. Things will not change unless Europe moves to change them, argue Heidi Hautala and Jude Kirton-Darling.
Report: Lack of EU coordination puts lone migrant children at serious risk
Children who flee to Europe from war-torn regions without their parents have no clear way of escaping abusive or exploitative adults as there are no unified policies in place to protect them, a European Union agency said yesterday (21 December).
Hungarian prisoners complete part of new anti-migrant fence
Hungarian prisoners have finished building the first part of a second anti-migrant fence on Hungary's southern border with Serbia, state television reported yesterday (21 November).
Malmström backs EU whistleblower over Thai labour rights
EU Trade Commission Cecilie Malmström on Thursday (6 October) strongly backed the British labour rights activist who helped expose labour abuses in Thailand, for which he received a three-year suspended jail sentence.
Fishing industry in murky waters
Today 85% of global fish stocks are over-exploited, depleted or fully exploited, to the extent that without urgent measures, we may be the last generation to catch food from the oceans, writes Linnéa Engström.
Women’s Day: Time for atonement, not celebration
It is too easy to fall in the trap of self-congratulation on 8 March, International Women’s Day. We’ve come a long way when it comes to women’s rights, writes Jerome Chaplier, but we mustn’t forget how far we still have to go.
Thailand claims junta better placed to tackle fish sector abuses
Thai authorities have registered more than 70,000 previously undocumented foreign workers in its fishing industry, navy officials said Thursday (11 February), part of a bid by the junta to stave off a potentially ruinous EU ban on its seafood exports.
EU to decide on Thai seafood ban
Thailand is waiting to hear if it has dodged a potentially crippling European Union ban on seafood exports, after auditors Friday (22 January) wrapped up a probe into illegal fishing.
EU labour rights activist pleads not guilty to Thai defamation charges
A UK lawyer pleaded ‘not guilty’ Monday to defamation charges which could see him spend seven years in jail for exposing alleged labour abuses in Thailand’s tinned fruit factories.
MEPs condemn Thai ‘harassment’ of EU rights activist
MEPs have condemned as ‘harassment’ the treatment of a British lawyer in Thailand who exposed labour abuses in the country’s lucrative fruit tinning industry.
Shrimp sold by global supermarkets is peeled by slave labourers in Thailand
Every morning at 2 AM, they heard a kick on the door and a threat: get up or get beaten. For the next 16 hours, No 31 and his wife stood in the factory with their aching hands in ice water.
Thai traffickers exposed by campaign group investigating fishing industry
A three-year investigation into slavery on Thailand's fishing boats has uncovered a well-oiled system of trafficking, abuse and exploitation in the southern port of Kantang, leading to eight arrests this month, a campaign group said on Monday.