Migrant workers contribute significantly to various industries in Southeast Asia, particularly labour-intensive sectors. In Thailand, the seafood supply chain relies on thousands of workers from Myanmar, while Malaysia’s rubber glove industry employs workers from Bangladesh, Nepal, Indonesia, and also Myanmar.
Despite the obvious need, the regulatory framework for labour migration, notably in fishing and seafood processing, is often weak. Countless workers are recruited through irregular and informal channels.
While there have been important improvements in recent years, workers still report a lack of written contracts, underpayment or withholding of wages, other types of wage theft, and coercion or involuntary work.
Migrant workers, numbering some 10 million, have been the main source of the recent resurgence of the coronavirus in countries including Malaysia and…
