The list of goods coming out of Asia that were produced using forced labor is a long one, and is mostly the product of two countries: China and Burma. These two nations, which have received plenty of criticism for their human rights records, lead the list of worst offenders of making citizens work against their will in factories, fields and mines.

 

According to the U.S. Labor Department, the 10 countries that use forced labor for the most different products, and the goods they produce while doing so, are:

 

·       Burma (bamboo, beans [green, soy, yellow], bricks, jade, palm thatch, physic nuts/castor beans, rice, rubber, rubies, sesame, shrimp, sugarcane, sunflower, teak)

·       China (artificial flowers, bricks, Christmas decorations, coal, cotton, electronics, fireworks, footwear, garments, nails, toys)

·       Pakistan (bricks, carpets, coal, cotton, sugarcane, wheat)

·       North Korea (bricks, cement, coal, gold, iron, textiles)

·       India (carpets, cottonseed [hybrid], embroidered textiles, garments, rice, stones)

·       Bolivia (Brazil nuts/chestnuts, cattle, corn, peanuts, sugarcane)

·       Brazil (cattle, charcoal, sugarcane, timber)

·       Nepal (bricks, carpets, embroidered textiles [zari], stones)

·       Nigeria (cocoa, granite, gravel)

·       Peru (Brazil nuts/chestnuts, gold, timber)

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor (pages 9-17) (U.S. Department of Labor) (pdf)