The View | Asian business must adapt as West increases focus on human rights abuses

Name: Leaked state documents describe repressive operations at China’s detention camps in Xinjiang
Uploaded: 2021-12-09T14:00:20.000Z
Duration: 3 min 47 s
Description: Leaked state documents describe repressive operations at China’s detention camps in Xinjiang

Firms doing business with the West, particularly Malaysian and Chinese firms, face growing scrutiny of business practices within their supply chain

As expectations rise, firms must be proactive in establishing credibility and trust with legislators, regulators and opinion-makers in key markets

Reading Time:3 minutes

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Workers inspect the quality of palm oil fruits at a factory in Sepang, outside Kuala Lumpur, in November 2014. Malaysian palm oil firms are among those being targeted by Western lawmakers and regulators over concerns about forced labour. Photo: AFP

Nick Wood

Published: 10:00pm, 9 Dec 2021Updated: 12:47am, 10 Dec 2021

As the world marks Human Rights Day on December 10, never before has this key principle been more relevant or more of a threat to businesses in the Asia-Pacific.

Rising scrutiny and expectations of companies’ environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) performance is attracting growing attention, triggering customer and government action that affects a firm’s bottom line. With the region at the centre of the global supply chain, it is vulnerable to human rights abuses, particularly deep in the network where factory owners and their customers can be unaware of abuses.

There are an estimated 48 million international migrant labourers in the Asia-Pacific. Many work in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand, with millions more workers migrating within their home countries – 286 million in China alone.

Companies are finding out that what worked in the past is no longer acceptable. Evidence comes from the United States, where Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has stepped up its import bans for forced labour, mostly from the Asia-Pacific.

In the first seven months of this year, the CBP detained 1,125 cargoes worth US$413 million for alleged forced labour violations, many involving labour-intensive industries and some of the world’s largest companies. This is a major step up from 314 detentions worth almost US$50 million in 2020 and just 12 in 2019.

03:47

Leaked state documents describe repressive operations at China’s detention camps in Xinjiang

CBP has targeted mainly Chinese and Malaysian imports. Imports targeted from China include those in the manufacturing, agriculture and solar industries. Three of Malaysia’s largest and most successful international companies were issued withhold release orders for alleged forced labour violations, and another is being investigated.

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.css-1m2rp1p{color:#34b8b5;}The View | Asian business must adapt as West increases focus on human rights abuses

The View | Asian business must adapt as West increases focus on human rights abuses