Philip Morris Kazakh Suppliers Used Forced Labor, Group Says
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Philip Morris International Inc., the world’s largest publicly traded tobacco maker, bought tobacco from farms in Kazakhstan that trapped workers into forced labor, Human Rights Watch said.
Employers at the farms confiscated migrant workers’ passports, didn’t pay regular wages and used child labor, the non-governmental organization said in a report on its website today. The report was based on interviews with 68 farm workers in 2009. Philip Morris said it has strengthened its child labor policies and is stepping up training of employees about migrant- worker rights.