Latest Forced labor News
Cult leaders convicted of forcing children to work 16-hour days without pay
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Six members of a Kansas-based cult have been convicted in a scheme to house children in overcrowded, rodent-infested facilities and force them to work up to 16 hours a day without pay while subjecting them to beatings and other abuse. The defendants were...
Cambodia decries US sanctions against one of its top tycoons implicated in forced labor
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Cambodia on Friday decried newly imposed U.S. sanctions on one of the country's top tycoons who has been implicated in allegations of forced labor, human trafficking and lucrative online scams. Cambodia’s foreign ministry expressed “deep regret over...
Japan's leader makes a farewell visit to Seoul and reaffirms sympathy for Korean colonial victims
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Less than a month before leaving office, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida visited Seoul and reaffirmed his sympathy for the suffering of Koreans during Japan’s colonial rule, as he and his South Korean counterpart Friday underscored the need to maintain warming...
Federal judge reinforces order for heat protection for Louisiana inmates at prison farm
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday ordered officials at the Louisiana State Penitentiary to increase shade and take other steps to protect prisoners doing agricultural labor from dangerous heat. U.S. District Judge Brian Jackson's order reinforced a similar one he...
Prisoners fight against working in heat on former slave plantation, raising hope for change in South
Beneath the blazing summer sun on a former slave plantation, Lamont Gross and fellow prisoners stooped in long rows, picking vegetables by hand under the watchful eyes of armed guards on horseback. He said breaks were short and infrequent, with nothing to protect workers from the heat. ...
Tennessee sheriff pleads not guilty to using prison labor for personal profit
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A sitting Tennessee sheriff pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges that he illegally profited from the work of jail inmates under his supervision and housed dozens of them in a home outside of the prison without permission. Gibson County Sheriff Paul Thomas...
Takeaways from AP's report on how China's textile recycling efforts take a back seat to fast fashion
WENZHOU, China (AP) — China is the world’s largest textile producer and consumer, throwing away 26 million tons of clothes each year, mostly made of unrecyclable synthetics. A recycling factory in Zhejiang province on China’s east coast repurposes discarded cotton clothes to...
Forced labor, same-sex marriage and shoplifting are all on the ballot in California this November
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Forced labor, same-sex marriage and shoplifting are among the 10 statewide ballot measures that California voters are set to consider in November. The California secretary of state assigned proposition numbers to the measures on Wednesday after the...
As temperatures soar, judge tells Louisiana to help protect prisoners working in fields
Amid blistering summer temperatures, a federal judge ordered Louisiana to take steps to protect the health and safety of incarcerated workers toiling in the fields of a former slave plantation, saying they face “substantial risk of injury or death.” The state immediately appealed the decision....
US miners' union head calls House Republican effort to block silica dust rule an 'attack' on workers
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — The head of the national mine workers’ union on Friday condemned what he characterized as an effort by House Republicans to block enforcement of a long-awaited federal rule directed at curbing workers' exposure to poisonous, deadly rock dust, calling it “a direct...
