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Thomson Reuters Foundation
PHNOM PENH
Cambodia's construction boom is built in part with"blood bricks"manufactured by modern-day slaves, including children, researchers said on Tuesday.Poverty fuelled partly by climate change has pushed tens of thousands of Cambodian families into bonded labour in the booming capital, according to a report by Britain's government and the Economic and Social Research Council.
"Tens of thousands of debt-bonded families in Cambodia extract, mould and fire clay in hazardous conditions to meet Phnom Penh's insatiable appetite for bricks,"the authors said.
"Kiln owners repay farmers'debts and offer a consolidated loan. In return, farmers and their families are compelled to enter into debt bondage with the kiln owner until the loan is repaid."Families surveyed had agreed to pay back loans of between $100 and $4,000. The average was $712 - a fortune in a country where the average annual income is $1,230, according to the World Bank.
Those pushed into debt bondage often earned far less than the average, with climate change hitting harvests and pushing farming families into debt.
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17/10/2018
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