Member's Day

Today is a member's day. First up is the third reading of the Carter Trust Amendment Bill, a boring private bill to tidy up the lingering effects of some rich peron's will. Then its the first reading of Camilla Belich and Greg Fleming's Modern Slavery Bill, which has gone straight to the top of the Order Paper after a majority of MPs signed up to support it. Its the first time that provision has been used, and hopefully it won't be the last. Then its another bunch of first readings - Arena Williams' Financial Markets (International Money Transfers) Amendment Bill, Jenny salesa's Residential Tenancies (Registration of Boarding House Landlords) Amendment Bill, and Kahurangi Carter's Drug Overdose (Assistance Protection) Legislation Bill (which will be quite illuminating about which MPs want to murder people). Tomorrow should see a mega-ballot for four bills.

And because people have been asking: NZ First's terf bill is currently down the bottom of the Order Paper. With the expected progress today, it might get a first reading next member's day (currently scheduled for 20 May), but their anti-"woke banking" bill is due back from committee tomorrow and will push everything out of the way, meaning it'll likely be delayed until 24 June.

ACT supports slavery

Good news today, as a coalition of Labour and National MPs have teamed up to bypass the biscuit tin and force legislation against modern slavery onto the order paper. Its the first time that particular mechanism has been used, but its unusual that its been used for this issue. Chris Luxon has said this is a personal priority of his that he would "march in the streets" for, and the New Zealand government has promised legislation targeting it in both its UK and EU free trade agreements. Yet nothing has been done. Why not? Because regime coalition partner ACT, which holds the "workplace relations" portfolio, has consistently opposed it. In 2024 they disbanded the government working group on the issue, and their opposition around the Cabinet table prevented government action. A former ACT leader has also written in support of historic chattel slavery - with whips and chains and rapes and murders - which tells you that this support for the most abusive forms of exploitation is built into the DNA of the party. For them, anything goes, provided a rich person can make a buck out of it.

So, we have a member's bill instead, so it'll get done, though slower than it should. Meanwhile, the ACT party has really shown us what it stands for. And having done that, it should be driven out of our society permanently. Slavery is a crime against humanity, and slavers are our common enemies. There should be no place in our politics for supporters of this atrocity.

Aotearoa should not have places named after slavers

What do Picton, Ashburtn, Stokes Valley, and Ellice St in wellington have in common?

They're all named after slave-owners.

This is abhorrent. Naming stuff after foreign imperialists is bad enough, but slave-owners were participants in one of the greatest crimes against humanity in human history. We should not be naming our towns and suburbs and streets after them. Renaming these places seems like the least we can do.

Unfortunately, given the attitude of land information minister Chris Penk, who today refused to return Russell to its original name of Kororāreka, that seems unlikely to happen under this racist dogshit regime.

Government-sponsored debt-slavery

Stuff this morning has an appalling story about the exploitation of RSE workers in Blenheim, with workers being overcharged for substandard accommodation, denied sick-leave, and held in what is effectively debt-slavery:

Migrant horticulture workers are being housed six men to a room, charged $150 a week to sleep in freezing and damp conditions which see them fall sick repeatedly, and then refused paid sick leave.

One worker living in a crowded motel unit in Blenheim became so unwell he was coughing blood, but his boss initially refused to take him to the doctor, telling him to go to The Warehouse and buy paracetamol instead.

[...]

Conditions are so bad, some of the workers say they are desperate to go home, but have been unable because they are in debt to their employers for flights, work clothing, or tools. Some have so many deductions from their pay each week, they end up with as little as $100.

Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner Saunoamaali'i Karanina Sumeo, who investigated this, is quite explicit in calling this as debt bondage, "where salary deductions are being used as a means to financially control workers". This is meant to be a crime in Aotearoa, but the way the RSE scheme is set up virtually guarantees it. Rather than being free to work for anyone, RSE workers are "bonded" to a particular employer, held captive to allow their exploitation. Effectively, we have a system of government-sponsored debt-slavery for the benefit of the horticultural industry.

We need to end this exploitative system. And the easiest way of doing it is to end bonding and give people real visas, so workers can move to non-exploitative employers. Of course, that would defeat the purpose - to provide the horticultural industry with cheap, captive labour to subsidise their profits. So I guess our chickenshit Labour government - supposedly a worker's party - will let this exploitation continue.

Labour needs to act on modern slavery

A group of New Zealand's largest companies are pushing for modern slavery legislation in New Zealand:

A coalition of 85 businesses and organisations has asked the government to launch a promised inquiry into whether a modern slavery act is needed in New Zealand.

The campaign is aimed at finding any instances of "modern slavery" in New Zealand, but also testing the integrity and transparency of supply chains used by local businesses.

A joint letter from the group said other countries have already enacted laws against modern slavery and New Zealand needs to act on a draft action plan it has already drawn up.

(That "draft" action plan was suddenly released today, very obviously in response to this media coverage. Of course, it promises no real action, instead saying they are "palnning" a review. Which I think tells you exactly how little the "Labour" Party cares about eliminating this scourge...)

A modern slavery act on the Australian model would require major businesses to report on the risks of modern slavery in their operations and supply chains, and actions to address those risks. But that's only part of the solution. The other half, as highlighted in Stuff's version of the story, is prohibiting goods made by slave or forced labour from being imported. And that's actually the easiest bit, because the 2017 Customs and Excise Act handles most import prohibitions by Order-in-Council rather than primary legislation, so the government can literally do it with the flick of a pen. And they did exactly that in 2019, when they banned imports of goods made by prison labour. So why haven't they done this for goods made by slave and forced labour? Too afraid of offending China?

National supports slavery

Meanwhile, while the government is planning to restore voting rights to prisoners, National is promising to turn our prisons into US-style slave-labour camps:

The Opposition is proposing compulsory education, training or employment for prisoners who are serving sentences of two years or more.

[...]

On Sunday, National Party Leader Simon Bridges said his was a party of law and order and would release its full discussion document on the law on Tuesday.

Part of that would include making the current opt-in system of working prisons becoming compulsory.

Compulsory work or you get punished? There's a name for that: slavery. And its illegal everywhere in the world, including New Zealand.

And lest anyone think this is hyperbole: prisoners in New Zealand are paid just 20 cents an hour. They have no labour rights, cannot join unions or strike, and their "employer" is not subject to the usual health and safety regime. This is not "employment" as normally understood, with contracts, rights, and transparent deductions for expenses, but a regime which uses the coercive environment of the prison system to extract forced labour from prisoners, while undercutting real businesses and driving free workers onto the dole queue. And the New Zealand government recognises this for foreign prisons, banning the importation of goods produced by prison labour. We need to recognise it domesticly as well.

National's policy is one part Trumpian performative cruelty, and one part keeping wages low for the benefit of their business cronies. It is abhorrent and immoral, and they should be ashamed of themselves for advocating it.

The Warehouse: Subsidised by forced labour

Social Development Minister Anne Tolley is proudly announcing a new "youth initiative" with The Warehouse to give young people work experience. Which sounds great, until you realise that that work experience, lasting 15 days, is unpaid. So what this really means is that MSD will be leaning on young people and threatening to cut benefits unless they "agree" to work for free for three weeks for a perfectly profitable major company. There's a name for that: forced labour. And its not something we should permit in New Zealand.

Assuming National's discriminatory "training wage" applies, each of these workers will be deprived of over $1500 in wages during their "work experience". MSD has agreed to provide a thousand of them, so what this really amounts to is a $1.5 million government subsidy to The Warehouse, extracted by bullying and threatening vulnerable young people. For a company which supposedly prides itself on its social conscience, its absolutely disgusting. And we shouldn't shop there, until they agree to pay every one of these workers at least the minimum wage, like any other employee.

The left should not support prison slave labour

Yesterday, the government announced that all prisons would become "working prisons", with their inmates forced to work for 40 hours a week for no pay, and denied parole if they don't. Bu what's appalling is that Labour and the Greens immediately lined up to say "me too" to this piece of "tough on crime" bullshit.

As I've pointed out before, there is a name for people kept in cages and forced to work for nothing at the point of a baton. They're called "slaves". Quite apart from the inherent wrongness of that (it is rightly a crime in all civilised nations, including New Zealand), it drives free workers to the dole queues, violates international law and puts exports at risk. And no left party should be supporting that.

What should they support? Education. Training. Proper work at decent wages with full employment rights. Corrections' release to work programme is a great example of how things should be done: it treats prisoners fairly, aids rehabilitation and re-integration into the community, and doesn't undermine non-slave businesses. But what the government is proposing is pure exploitation for the profit of some of our biggest companies. Labour and the Greens should not support it.

Correction: The Greens do not support prison slave labour. Good to know. I apologise for believing the Herald's report of their position.

The Māori Party and slave-fishing

In the early C19th, when William Wilberforce was camapigning to abolish slavery in Britain's colonial posessions, he met with strong opposition from the British establishment. Few of his opponents were bold enough to say that they actually approved of slavery. Instead, abolition would be "impractical". It would be bad for business and bad for the empire. The abuses which the abolitionists had highlighted were exaggerated and not widespread (there's a great example of this in the Earl of Belmore's speech on the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 here).

The Maori Party's contribution on the Fisheries (Foreign Charter Vessels and Other Matters) Amendment Bill, which abolishes slave-fishing in the New Zealand fishing industry, fits perfectly with this long tradition:

We know that the changes may mean that some iwi will no longer be able to operate. Big companies are better able to absorb the costs of changes, but those iwi and other operators who fish low-yield catch, cannot. There is a real risk that it will threaten their business, no matter how small they are. We believe that the Māori fisheries settlement must be durable. The Crown must act in good faith to ensure that we as Māori have a fair opportunity to catch up with our industry counterparts.

[...]

Iwi leaders told us, as they did also to the Ministers and anyone else who bothered to listen, that the alleged breaches of human rights issues—the widespread abuse that was being discussed—was never proven in an inquiry. It was their absolute belief that the legislation that evolved was an approach that was sort of like a sledgehammer to a peanut. They always knew that there could have been a far more effective approach to resolving issues than what was eventually developed.

In the end, they supported the bill. But its clear that they didn't want to, and wanted to keep slavery on charter vessels for a few more years for the profit of their big iwi backers. And that is simply an appalling position to take.

(Still, it could have been worse. When the UK abolished slavery, it compensated slave-owners for the deprivation of their "property" - compensation Britain's elite former slave-holders are still benefiting from today. At least we didn't see our Parliament approving a similar deal of compensating people we should be prosecuting for obeying the law they should have obeyed all along).

Victims of prison labour?

One of the worries about prison slave labour is that unpaid prisoners will displace real workers from employment. And at first glance that's what seems to be going on in this story:

A Kaiapoi business fired five of its labourers two days after employing 11 convicts - and then made the workers train the inmates who were to replace them, current and former staff say.

Kaiapoi man Hare Solomon said Kiwi Pallets Kaiapoi told him and four workmates they would be laid off in late January "due to lack of work and other factors" just days after the company had hired 11 inmates from Christchurch's Rolleston Prison under the Release to Work scheme.

He was then made to train the convicts during the two-week notice period.

Except that the replacements were employed under the release to work scheme. Which means they get real wages and are subject to normal employment conditions. And while "real wages" allows for a lot of variability, the sacked workers have said they were paid minimum wage, so there's no legal scope for them to be cheaper.

So what's going on? Is Corrections paying subsidies so that it can meet its employment targets? Or is this just a case of a bad employer using bad process to implement a dumb idea (for which they are already suffering in the productivity stakes, and will likely be facing an Employment Relations Authority case as well)?

(There have been other cases of prison slave labour undercutting real businesses and taking jobs from workers, but this doesn't seem to be one of them).

National's economic plan: Prison slave labour

So, buried in yesterdays insults from the Prime Minister there was apparently one new plan: a massive expansion of prison slave labour:

Up to 1400 inmates will be working 40 hours a week - without pay - by the end of this year as part of a plan to create more "working prisons" in New Zealand.

Prime Minister John Key announced in his first speech to Parliament for the year that the number of prisons with fulltime work programmes would be expanded as part of a drive to cut reoffending.

Inmates at Rolleston Prison had already begun 40-hour weeks in response to a demand for labour for the rebuild of Christchurch.

Corrections Minister Anne Tolley confirmed this initiative would be extended to all prisoners at Rolleston, and also to North Island prisons Tongariro-Rangipo and Auckland Women's Corrections Facility.

I have no problem with prisoners working on everyday tasks such as cooking and cleaning within their prison, as part of genuinely educational training schemes, or for a commercial wage with reasonable deductions to cover accommodation (but not incarceration) costs. Corrections' "release to work" scheme, where prisoners are released during the day near the end of their sentence to work in an ordinary workplace is an example of this, and it helps reintegrate people back into the community. But that's not what National is talking about. Instead, they're planning to use the coercive power of the state to extract labour from people by force, and punish them if they refuse.

There's a name for that: slavery. And its illegal in pretty much every country in the world, including New Zealand.

But its not just a moral case - its also a practical one. Existing prison labour has been driving private sector operators out of business. An expansion will mean more of the same. Which in turn means higher unemployment and lower economic growth. But I guess National thinks that's a price worth paying in order to get the vicious sadist vote.

If National wants prisoners to work, they must do so under the same conditions that apply to everyone else: work should be voluntary, with full labour rights, a fair days wage, and transparent deductions for expenses. National's current model of keeping them in a cage, paying them nothing or a pittance, and beating them in the head with a stick if they refuse is simply forced labour and a crime against humanity.

No justice for slave fishing

Sajo Oyang is South Korea's largest fishing company. Its also the company responsible for slave-fishing in New Zealand waters. Its predominantly Indonesian crews are reportedly treated like slaves: beaten, sexually-abused, forced to work in unsafe conditions, and (of course) underpaid. Last year, it looked like the South Korean authorities were finally goign to do something about this, bringing charges against the company and its managers for fraud and sexual abuse - charges which would have seen them in jail. Sadly, it hasn't worked out that way:

A top official of Korea's largest fishing company has escaped prosecution despite a report that he admitted ordering the forging of currency receipts to trick Immigration New Zealand over payment to low-wage crews.

Nine men either working for Sajo Oyang Corporation in Korea, or on their vessel Oyang 75 in New Zealand, will not be prosecuted by Korean authorities for a variety of offences, including allegations of forgery and assault.

[...]

Busan Regional Public Prosecutor Yoo Kyungpil said in his report that one of the accused, unnamed but described as the CEO of Sajo Industry (now part of Oyang), had admitted to his "suspected crimes".

He said it was the first time he had been accused of criminal activity, and would not be prosecuted for alleged abetting and fraudulent use of documents.

So, serious fraud, but as its a first offence he gets a free pass. I think we can call that a whitewash. As for the assault and sexual abuse charges, South Korean prosecutors claim they have no jurisdiction - despite the vessels being Korean flagged and therefore operating under Korean Law under UNCLOS. Either Korea has a serious legal loophole which renders all of its ships law-free zones, or someone is dragging their feet. And either way, its not acceptable. Serious crimes have been committed in New Zealand waters, including slavery, a crime under international law over which all nations have universal jurisdiction. If Korea disclaims all responsibility for investigating and prosecuting them, then we should take it up.

Justice for slave-fishing

Last year, the Sunday Star-Times exposed the widespread abuse of workers on foreign-flagged fishing vessels operating in New Zealand. The crew of these vessels were treated like slaves: beaten, sexually-abused, forced to work in unsafe conditions, and (of course) underpaid by their foreign employers. The New Zealand authorities of course refused to do anything - they didn't want to interfere with the fishing industry's profits - but now the South Korean authorities are acting, and are bringing charges against the vessels' owners:

Korea's largest fishing company, the Sajo Oyang Corporation, faces charges of fraud and the physical and sexual abuse of Indonesian crew working in New Zealand waters.

Documents obtained by the Sunday Star-Times show that the Korea Coast Guard wants to press charges against the company's chief executive, two Korea-based managers and the company's manning agent for forgery of wage documents, fraudulently using and abetting the use of the documents and obstructing official duties.

Thirty-two Indonesian crew walked off the Oyang 75 and Shin Ji in Lyttelton last year claiming physical and sexual abuse by the ships' management.

The crew's bosun (manager), chief engineer, chief mate and first engineer face charges including assault, sexual assault and habitual assault.

Further charges relating to the non-payment of wages have been referred to Korea's Busan Regional Maritime Affairs and Port Office.

This is good news, but shouldn't it be New Zealand standing up for the human rights of workers doing New Zealand jobs in New Zealand waters?

National does a good thing for once

The government is banning foreign charter fishing vessels, requiring them to be reflagged in order to fish in New Zealand waters. Good. What's been allowed to go on on these ships - slavery, beatings, sexual abuse, unsafe working conditions - is an absolute scandal, which shames us all. We should not be allowing it to happen in New Zealand. And now, we won't.

But while this will prevent the problem from happening in future, there's still one aspect that needs to be dealt with. Slavery is a crime in New Zealand. Assault is a crime in New Zealand. Rape is a crime in New Zealand. Killing and maiming your workers is a crime in New Zealand. These crimes need to be punished. Those who ran the slave ships and those who hired them need to be held to account in the courts. Until we do that, the stain of this crime will remain.

DPF on slave-fishing

While National drags its feet on slave-fishing, DPF gets it. The problem is real. And its not just an employment issue:

A failure to pay minimum wages under NZ law (which the FCVs have agreed to do) is the least of the abuses. They get told they will lose the little pay they do get unless they lie to the NZ authorities about how much they are paid. Any complaints can see them lose bonds worth more than their earnings. They are forced to work long and dangerous hours with no regard for safety.

But even worse than there, there are several documented cases of physical violence, sexual abuse and even rape of the (mainly Indonesian) staff who work on these vessels. They are basically treated as slaves during their incarceration on the vessels. Actually many slaves in the Roman republic were treated better, than what has happened to these workers in our territorial waters.

These abuses have gone on for far too long. New Zealand has even ended up on the watch list of the US State Department whose annual Trafficking in Persons Report mentions fishing in New Zealand as a problem area.

This is not something our government can turn a blind eye to or whitewash for the benefit of its rich mates. DPF gets that too, and recognises that the eventual solution may have to be requiring all vessels fishing in our EEZ to be flagged here so as to be fully subject to New Zealand law. As for the economic consequences, bugger them; as DPF says,

we can't allow these abuses to continue in our waters, by ships fishing New Zealand quota.

If only the government would take that line...

Slave-fishing: The core problem

The core problem with slave-fishing? We treat it as an employment issue, a contractual dispute, rather than a matter of fundamental human rights. When people escape from slave-boats and complain, the government focuses on getting them paid (assuming they are not simply deported), rather than treating them as victims of a serious crime. As for the police, the report [PDF] has this to say:

Although complaints to the New Zealand Police on such matters as human rights abuses of crew on board foreign flagged FCVs have been made in the past, no prosecutions or investigations have resulted. We are advised that the New Zealand Police position is that the principal issues are employment related and are more appropriately dealt with by DoL through civil remedies such as the Employment Court. The difficulty is compounded by the fact that New Zealand has limited criminal jurisdiction over foreign flagged vessels.

(Emphasis added)

Here's a hint: when people are treated like this, kept in debt-bondage, forced to work extreme hours, beaten, raped, and threatened with retribution against themselves and their families if they complain, then it is not a mere "employment issue". It is a criminal matter. And the law is pretty clear:

Every one is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 14 years who, within or outside New Zealand... employs or uses any person as a slave [which includes those under debt-bondage - I/S], or permits any person to be so employed or used

We have universal jurisdiction on this. The only reason the police do not act is because they do not want to. They'll use 80 armed offenders squad members and a helicopter to raid a house for the Americans to arrest someone for downloading television, but they sit on their hands when given credible complaints of a serious crime against humanity.

This has to change. Slavery is a stain on humanity, which needs to be eradicated. It should not be tolerated in New Zealand, by the police, by the government, or by anybody else. At the moment, government inaction is letting foreign charter vessels use slaves as crew. It is letting New Zealand companies profit from this. And this simply isn't good enough. Those who keep and exploit slaves need to be prosecuted. Those who profit from slavery need to have those profits seized. If this drives part of the fishing industry bankrupt, then good. Because an "industry" founded on slavery is not one any civilised society can tolerate.

National does nothing about slave-fishing

Last year, the Sunday Star-Times revealed that workers on foreign fishing vessels operating in New Zealand waters were being treated like slaves: beaten, sexually-abused, forced to work in unsafe conditions, and (of course) underpaid by their foreign employers. The government responded by doing what it always does when it doesn't want to do anything: launched an inquiry. That inquiry reported back last week, and the report [PDF] was released today. It recommended a full reform of the industry to eliminate slave-fishing, including extending maritime rules and the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992 to cover foreign charter vessels and allowing the Director-General of Fisheries to revoke a foreign charter vessel's registration (and therefore right to fish in NZ waters) for safety reasons, with a long-term goal of requiring all foreign charter vessels to be demise chartered and fully subject to New Zealand law.

The government's response? Do nothing. Oh, they'll do the window-dressing - increase observers and inspections - but when it comes to the substantive reforms which might actually solve the problem, it's a firm "we'll think about it" (which is politician-speak for "fuck off and die"). Faced with a fundamental moral challenge which threatens our international reputation, the government is sitting on its hands and refusing to act.

To point out the obvious, slavery is illegal under New Zealand law. In keeping with international law, we recognise it as a crime against humanity. So why is the government refusing to act? A moral government would be announcing immediate steps to eliminate slavery in New Zealand waters, coupled with credible investigations into the captains, owners and charterers of these vessels, with an eye to prosecuting them for employing slaves. National won't. And its hard to see this as anything other than protecting the interests of their rich mates, who are profiting from this revolting business.

Our fishing industry is morally bankrupt

Now there's a surprise: the Seafood Industry Council, which represents operators of slave fishing-boats, thinks we need more of them, not less. Apparently, they can't get kiwis to work on their dangerous boats for weeks at a time for the pittance they're offering. Of course, there is a very simple solution to that problem: pay higher wages. It speaks volumes about the SIC and their members that they are unwilling to pursue that solution, and instead contract out their quota to foreign-crewed vessels not subject to New Zealand labour standards (or, apparently, basic human rights).

Meanwhile, its worth noting that these foreign-crewed vessels the SIC are so keen on are regularly breaching New Zealand fisheries law. They're not just screwing us on wages, but on the environment as well.

Its time Parliament put its foot down. If you want to fish in New Zealand waters, then it should be by New Zealanders, on New Zealand registered boats, and fully subject to New Zealand labour laws, safety standards and environmental regulations. Anything less, and we're allowing our country to be pillaged for the private profit of a few.

Shining a spotlight on prison slave labour

Buy organic vegetables? Eat meat? Drink milk? Congratulations! You're unwittingly ingesting the fruits of prison slave labour!

Last year, the Corrections department employed 2230 low-security prisoners in its Corrections Inmate Employment scheme, in which they are rented out to outside companies (in violation of international law) or work in Corrections-owned businesses within prison walls. Those prisoners were collectively paid $1.69 million - or about 40 cents an hour. Their labour is effectively forced, the products they make the fruits of slavery.

So, what are those products? Following the Herald story, I asked. According to the response [PDF], the following companies purchased goods and services produced in prison:

• Canon NZ Ltd (refurbished photocopiers)
• the Families Commission ("White Ribbon Day" ribbons and cards)
• Fresh Direct (organic produce)
• Fonterra (milk)
• FreshPork (fattened pigs)
• AFFCO (meat and wool)
• Housing New Zealand Corporation (housing refurbishment)

Corrections refused to name other businesses on the basis that "supplying this information 'would be likely unreasonably to prejudice the commercial position of the person who supplied or who is the subject of the information'".

Corrections also admitted supplying work-parties [PDF] to several city councils and LATEs, as well as commercial forestry companies such as Pan Pac Forest Products, Craigpine, and Proseed. Several of these companies (and several of those named earlier) are exporters. Their exports are now at risk. Quite apart from the reputational risk of using slaves, most countries (including, ironically, New Zealand) ban the import of goods produced in whole or in part by prison labour. Sourcing goods from Corrections' prison labour scheme could see those goods barred from overseas markets.

(It should also result in consequences on the domestic market. People don't like slavery, and are unlikely to react well to companies sourcing their goods from prison slave labour. And contra Corrections, this is not an unreasonable prejudice. Instead, its the natural consequence of these immoral companies' actions. Unfortunately, Corrections' secrecy and the lack of any product labelling requirements prevents us from exercising consumer choice in this matter).

As I've noted previously, I support education and training schemes in prison. But the CIE scheme isn't rehabilitation - it is the exploitation of a literally captive labour market for profit. It is slavery, and it is wrong.

Big tobacco is evil

OK, so we all know that Big Tobacco is evil; their long denial that they were effectively selling a slow death by cancer shows that. But they're also responsible for another kind of evil: child slavery:

Tobacco giant Philip Morris has been forced to admit that child workers as young as 10 have been subjected to long hours working on tobacco farms with which it has contracts in the Central Asian state of Kazakhstan.

According to a report by Human Rights Watch, migrant workers at the farms, mostly from neighbouring Kyrgyzstan, were subjected to conditions that often amounted to forced labour, as employers contracted by tobacco farms that sold their produce to Philip Morris International had their passports confiscated and were often made to do additional work for no pay. The company, which sources tobacco from Kazakhstan for cigarette brands sold in Russia and other former Soviet states, said it was taking "immediate action" to stop the abuses.

In many cases families were expected to pay back unrealistic debts to intermediaries who had arranged for their journeys to Kazakhstan, in schemes that bear all the hallmarks of people trafficking. The report also documented 72 cases of children working on the farms.

Child slavery, debt slavery, forced labour. Light up, breathe deep - you're getting slavery in every cigarette.

The full report from Human Rights Watch is here.