Thursday, 16 Jul 2020 08:01 PM MYT
The United States did not say why it had placed a detention order on imports of products made by subsidiaries of Malaysia’s Top Glove, but such orders are used against firms suspected of using forced labour. The Thomson Reuters Foundation first reported in 2018 that migrant workers at Top Glove were working long hours to pay off debts taken on to pay the agents that secured them their jobs.
“The action by US authorities is timely,” said Alex Ong, coordinator at Migrant Care, which campaigns for migrant workers in Malaysia. It was the second such action in a year against a glove manufacturer in Malaysia, which produces two out of every three pairs of rubber gloves. However it said it was still working to reimburse workers who paid fees to agents before January 2019 without its knowledge.