Child labour in the USA, Myanmar prisons and Koreans in China

Many U.S. companies, including some of the country’s largest consumer brands, say they are taking steps to eliminate child labour. The number of audits is to be increased, especially on night shifts, when most minors work. Since 2021, hundreds of underage migrants have crossed the southern border of the United States alone, which has resulted in more and more children taking up dangerous, illegal work in factories, slaughterhouses and industrial dairy farms across the country.

Myanmar is undergoing a vast and secret prison-building program, a new satellite analysis shows, raising fears that they could play a key role in suppressing the country’s pro-democracy movement. According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which collects data on those killed, imprisoned and detained by the military junta, more than 25,900 “political prisoners” have been arrested since the 2021 coup, including 20,000 who are still detained.

According to reports, North Koreans working in China started riots when they learned that their salaries, instead of being paid to them, would be used to produce weapons for Pyongyang. Verifying that information is difficult because North Korea’s factories in China are closely guarded. It is estimated that 100,000 North Koreans are seconded abroad, most of their salaries are transferred directly to the state, and in the years 2017–2023 they were supposed to earn $740 million for Pyongyang.