A child helps her parents work on a palm oil plantation in Sabah, Malaysia, in 2018. With little or no access to daycare, some young children in Indonesia and Malaysia follow their parents to the fields, where they are exposed to toxic pesticides and fertilizers.
Binsar Bakkara/Associated Press
They are two young girls from two very different worlds, linked by a global industry that exploits an army of children.
Olivia Chaffin, a Girl Scout in Jonesborough, Tennessee, was a top cookie seller in her troop when she first heard rainforests were being destroyed to make way for palm oil plantations. On one of those plantations a continent away, 10-year-old Ima helped harvest the fruit that makes its way into a dizzying array of products sold by leading Western food and cosmetics brands.
Thursday, 31 Dec 2020 03:58 PM MYT
BY KENNETH TEE
A worker loads palm fruits onto a lorry at a plantation in Sepang October 30, 2019. Picture by Shafwan Zaidon
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KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 31 Cultural differences and the way things work in Malaysia are among the factors involved in the decision by the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to detain any palm oil and products manufactured by two local palm oil companies and their subsidiaries or affiliates over allegations of forced labour.
Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) director-general Ahmad Parveez Ghulam Kadir said forced labour defined by the United States was probably different from Malaysia which subsequently led to the misunderstanding and subsequent ban on oil palm products.
Thursday, 31 Dec 2020 05:42 PM MYT
BY ZURAIRI AR
Sime Darby Plantation said it is committed to combatting forced labour and has implemented policies to protect workers’ rights. Reuters file pic
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KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 31 Sime Darby Plantation Bhd (SDP) has today said it is still reviewing United States Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) order yesterday banning its palm oil and products for alleged forced labour, claiming insufficient information.
Instead, the palm oil giant said it is committed to combat forced labour and has implemented policies to protect workers’ rights, including appointing PricewaterhouseCoopers
An estimated tens of thousands of children work alongside their parents in Indonesia and Malaysia, which supply 85% of the world’s most consumed vegetable oil.
ROBIN McDOWELL & MARGIE MASON
Associated Press
They are two young girls from two very different worlds, linked by a global industry that exploits an army of children.
Olivia Chaffin, a Girl Scout in rural Tennessee, was a top cookie seller in her troop when she first heard rainforests were being destroyed to make way for ever-expanding palm oil plantations. On one of those plantations a continent away, 10-year-old Ima helped harvest the fruit that makes its way into a dizzying array of products sold by leading Western food and cosmetics brands.
Ima is among the estimated tens of thousands of children working alongside their parents in Indonesia and Malaysia, which supply 85% of the world s most consumed vegetable oil. An Associated Press investigation found most earn little or no pay and are routinely exposed to toxic chemicals and other dangerous conditions. Some never go to school or learn to read and write. Others are smuggled across borders and left vulnerable to trafficking