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Palm oil labor abuses linked to world’s top brands and banks

By Associated Press

Sept. 24, 2020

1/18
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ASSOCIATED PRESS / 2017

A woman spreads fertilizer in a palm oil plantation in Sumatra, Indonesia. A half-century ago, palm oil was just another commodity that thrived in the tropics. Many Western countries relied on their own crops, like soybean and corn for cooking, until major retailers discovered the cheap oil from Southeast Asia had almost magical qualities.
2/18
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ASSOCIATED PRESS / 2017

A worker loads heavy bunches of palm oil fruit into a cart on a palm oil plantation in Sumatra, Indonesia. Palm oil is virtually impossible to avoid. Often disguised on labels as an ingredient listed by more than 200 names, it can be found in roughly half the products on supermarket shelves and in most cosmetic brands.
3/18
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ASSOCIATED PRESS / 2017

A young girl collects palm oil fruit on a palm oil plantation in Sumatra, Indonesia. Some workers who fail to meet impossibly high quotas can see their wages reduced, forcing entire families into the fields to make the daily number.
4/18
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ASSOCIATED PRESS / 2017

A little girl holds palm oil fruit collected from a plantation in Sumatra, Indonesia. An Associated Press investigation has found many palm oil workers in Indonesia and neighboring Malaysia endure exploitation, including child labor.
5/18
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ASSOCIATED PRESS / 2017

A little girl carries a bucket of palm oil fruit she collected on a plantation in Sumatra, Indonesia. Workers who fail to meet impossibly high quotas can see their wages reduced, forcing entire families into the fields to make the daily number.
6/18
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ASSOCIATED PRESS / 2017

Workers load palm oil fruit weighing up to 50 pounds (22 kilograms) each into a truck on a palm oil plantation in Sumatra, Indonesia. Many Western countries relied on their own crops like soybean and corn for cooking, until major retailers discovered the cheap oil from Southeast Asia had almost magical qualities.
7/18
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ASSOCIATED PRESS / 2017

Palm oil workers hold a rally demanding to be treated fairly in Rantau Prapat, North Sumatra, Indonesia. The Associated Press has found systematic labor abuses on plantations big and small, including some that meet certification standards set by the global Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, an association whose members include palm oil producers, buyers, traders and environmental watchdogs.
8/18
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ASSOCIATED PRESS / 2017

Women fill sacks with fertilizer to be spread in a palm oil plantation in Sumatra, Indonesia. Many large suppliers have pledged to root out labor abuses after pressure from buyers who have denounced it. But some workers said they are told to hide or are coached on what to say during auditors' scheduled visits to plantations, where only the best conditions are often showcased to gain sustainability certification.
9/18
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ASSOCIATED PRESS / 2018

An Indonesian migrant worker places candles on the grave of her husband who worked on a Malaysian palm oil plantation in Sabah, Malaysia. As global demand for palm oil surges, plantations are struggling to find enough laborers, frequently relying on brokers who prey on the most at-risk people. The bodies of migrants who die are sometimes not sent home.
10/18
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ASSOCIATED PRESS / 2018

Smoke rises from a processing mill at a palm oil plantation in Sumatra, Indonesia. Though labor issues have largely been ignored, the punishing effects of palm oil on the environment have been decried for years.
11/18
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ASSOCIATED PRESS / 2019

Men from Bangladesh ride in the back of a truck heading to an immigration detention center in Medan, North Sumatra, Indonesia. Officials said a few dozen men were found locked in a house, waiting for a broker to bring them illegally by boat to Malaysia, with some planning to work on palm oil plantations.
12/18
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ASSOCIATED PRESS / 2019

Pillows and blankets are seen in the sleeping area of Bangladeshi palm oil worker, Karim, at a house he shares with others in peninsular Malaysia. "I have been cheated five times in six years," said Karim, a migrant worker who arrived in Malaysia legally after being promised a position in an electronics company, only to end up working for a subcontractor on several plantations owned by the biggest companies. He says once when he asked for his unpaid wages, his boss "threatened to run me over with his car." 
13/18
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ASSOCIATED PRESS / 2019

Vannak Anan Prum, who was double trafficked, points to his illustration of an abusive former boss, a palm oil estate owner, in his graphic novel depicting his life as a slave on a fishing boat before being sold onto a Malaysian palm oil plantation, at his home in Pursat, Cambodia.
14/18
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ASSOCIATED PRESS

Spraying equipment lies in a worker's living quarters made of shipping containers in a palm oil plantation run by government-owned Felda in Malaysia, in early 2020. Jum, a former worker who escaped from this same plantation, described to The Associated Press how the company confiscated, described sleeping on the ground, exposed to the wind and monsoon rains, with only a campfire to fend off snakes and tigers.
15/18
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ASSOCIATED PRESS

A worker bathes at a palm oil plantation run by government-owned Felda in peninsular Malaysia, in early 2020. Jum, a former worker who escaped from this same plantation, described how the company confiscated, and later lost, his Indonesian passport, leaving him vulnerable to arrest and forcing him to hide in the jungle.
16/18
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ASSOCIATED PRESS

A migrant worker trims his eyebrows at his living quarters on a palm oil plantation run by government-owned Felda in Malaysia in early 2020. Jum, a former worker who escaped from this same plantation, described to The Associated Press how the company confiscated and later lost his Indonesian passport, leaving him vulnerable to arrest and forcing him to hide in the jungle.
17/18
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ASSOCIATED PRESS

Pots and pans hang in the kitchen of workers' living quarters in a palm oil plantation run by the government-owned Felda in Malaysia in early 2020. Jum, a former worker who escaped from this same plantation, said the company confiscated, and later lost his Indonesian passport, leaving him vulnerable to arrest and forcing him to hide in the jungle.
18/18
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ASSOCIATED PRESS

An Indonesian migrant worker rests after working on a palm oil plantation run by the government-owned Felda in Malaysia, in early 2020. Jum, a former worker who escaped from this same plantation, said the company confiscated, and later lost his Indonesian passport, leaving him vulnerable to arrest and forcing him to hide in the jungle.

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