European markets are posting losses Wednesday after the chaotic U.S. presidential debate between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden the night before. London’s FTSE index is down 0.1% at the midday point, while both Paris’s CAC-40 index and the DAX index in Frankfurt are both 0.4% lower. The trading day in Asia ended hours earlier with mixed results.  The Nikkei index in Tokyo lost 1.5%.  A woman wearing face mask walks past a bank’s electronic board showing the Hong Kong share index at Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Sept. 30, 2020.Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index is up 0.7%, while Shanghai’s Composite index is down 0.2%. Sydney’s S&P/ASX index closed 2.2% lower.  The Sensex in Mumbai ended 0.2% higher.  The KOSPI index in Seoul gained 0.8%, and Taipei’s TSEC index earned 0.3%.    In commodities trading, gold is trading at $1,891.90 an ounce, down 0.5%.  U.S. crude oil is trading at $39.08 per barrel, down 0.5%, and Brent crude is trading at $40.56 per barrel, down 1.1%.    All three major U.S. indices are trending lower in futures trading ahead of Wall Street’s opening bell.     
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As Britain’s last governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten introduced a series of democratic reforms in preparation for what was expected to be 50 years of relative autonomy following the territory’s return to Chinese sovereignty in 1997. Since then, he has watched that autonomy get slowly whittled away. What Beijing has done to Hong Kong is the “biggest assault on freedom and liberty in any city in the 21st century, certainly as big as anywhere else,” Patten said at a virtual policy forum last week. “What they’re doing in Hong Kong is to destroy what was promised in Hong Kong: a high degree of autonomy — one country, two systems. They’re doing that in a way which I must say will give Taiwan even greater room for thought because I’m sure what they’re doing in Hong Kong, they would like to do one day in Taiwan.” Hong Kong China and Taipei TaiwanPatten spoke at a discussion on the future of Hong Kong organized by the Canada-based A man wearing face mask walks past a bank’s electronic board showing the Hong Kong share index at Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Sept. 28, 2020.”One reason why so many investors will make their excuses and disappear to Singapore or to Seoul or to Tokyo is because they know the importance of free flow of information,” he added. “They know that’s not possible in a Chinese communist system.” In the 90-minute seminar that also featured other speakers, Patten said the current decade “may represent what’s called ‘peak China,’” but it is important not to exaggerate China’s importance to the rest of the world. “It’s true that China is the largest country in the world, and it’s true that China is a huge market for us. But the truth of the matter is: China needs us just as much, and perhaps in some respects even more, than we need China.” British exports to China have increased in real terms by just 3% since 1980 while China’s exports to Britain have risen by 9%, he said. “So who’s helping whom?” “I think it’s very, very important that we don’t fall for the Chinese communist confection that somehow we all need them more than they need us.” Patten stressed that emerging global efforts to constrain China’s power are not a war against the Chinese people. “It is not anti-Chinese to say we should stand up for liberal democracy,” he said. “Standing up for liberal democracy means standing up for one another,” not the least those in Hong Kong and in the rest of China. Patten, serving as chancellor of Oxford University since 2003, urged the international community to help “provide a lifeline” to those who dare to resist China and the pro-Beijing Hong Kong authorities, including by providing more Hong Kong students with fellowships to study abroad.  
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With international travel almost nonexistent because of the coronavirus pandemic, the global tourism industry is finding new ways to make money. In Asia, one way companies are trying to stay profitable is through so-called “flights to nowhere,” as VOA’s Bill Gallo explains from Seoul. 
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China in recent months has been injecting hundreds of thousands of people with three preliminary coronavirus vaccianes that are being tested for safety and efficacy.While the world awaits a proven drug to fight the pandemic, at least three vaccine candidates have been given to front-line medical professionals, staff of state-owned companies, and government officials since July under an emergency use program approved by Beijing.China National Biotec Group (CNBG), a subsidiary of state-owned Sinopharm, has administered two experimental vaccine candidates to around 350,000 people outside its clinical trials, CNBG chairman Yang Xiaoming said recently. The company also donated 200,000 doses of one of the candidate vaccines that is still undergoing clinical trials in Wuhan, where the pandemic was first reported.Another drugmaker, Sinovac Biotech, has injected 90% of its employees and their family members, or about 3,000 people, Yin Weidong, the company’s CEO, said this month.”At present, tens of thousands of people in Beijing should have been vaccinated with Sinovac’s vaccine,” Yin told Chinese state media.Separately, Beijing also gave approval in June for members of the armed forces to receive an experimental vaccine developed by CanSino Biologics, a biopharmaceutical company that is backed by the military.A man works in the packaging facility of Chinese vaccine maker Sinovac Biotech, developing an experimental coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine, in Beijing, China, Sept. 24, 2020.Phase 3 trial importantForeign experts have criticized using the experimental vaccines before clinical trials have been completed.”It is reckless and dangerous to distribute a minimally tested vaccine about which nothing has been published,” said Dr. Arthur Caplan, head of the division of medical ethics at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine.”Puts too many people at risk without opportunity to study safety and efficacy in a large group,” Caplan told VOA in an email.Vaccines usually require years of research and testing before being made available to the public. In Phase 3 trials, vaccines are generally given to thousands of people and tested for safety and efficacy.”Before the completion of Phase 3 trials, we cannot have full confidence in the safety and effectiveness of a vaccine,” Lawrence Gostin, professor of Global Health Law at Georgetown University, told VOA.Under China’s law, vaccines developed for major public health emergencies can be deployed for urgent use if the National Medical Products Administration considers that the benefits of the treatment outweigh the risks.Experts say speeding up the process introduces more risk, which could undermine the vaccination effort in the long run.“This practice can backfire if the rushed process causes a widespread distrust of the vaccine when fewer people are willing to take the vaccine. Or it can cause severe damages when vaccine complications were warned, due to the rushed trials, “Dr. Jennifer Huang Bouey, an epidemiologist and China expert at the RAND Corporation, told VOA.Most candidates failCurrently, there are 42 vaccine candidates that are being tested on humans, 11 of them developed by Chinese companies.Nurse Isabelli Guasso administers China’s Sinovac potential vaccine for the COVID-19 to volunteer Dr. Luciano Marini, at the Sao Lucas Hospital of the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre, Brazil Aug. 8, 2020.According to the American Council on Science and Health, a research and education organization, vaccines for infectious diseases in clinical trials only have a 33.4% success rate, meaning that most of the vaccines that entered the stage of clinical trials will fail.China claims that so far, there have been no obvious adverse reactions among the people who were inoculated.”Tens of thousands of people vaccinated have traveled to countries and regions with high risks of COVID-19. No one has been infected so far, and this proved the effectiveness of the vaccines,” said Zhou Song, chief legal adviser of CNBG.A box for a COVID-19 vaccine is displayed at an exhibit by Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinopharm at the China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) in Beijing, China, Sept. 5, 2020.There are 11 candidates in Phase 3 trials, four of them are developed by Chinese companies. While Phase 3 is the final stage, it does not necessarily mean that successful results are imminent.A U.S. Food and Drug Administration study in 2017 found that vaccine candidates that had encouraging Phase 2 results could still fail. Of the 22 vaccines in Phase 3 trials that scientists studied, 14 of them did not confirm the effectiveness of the product that was indicated in Phase 2 trials. One vaccine in the study had a safety problem identified in Phase 3.”If the vaccine is ultimately proven to be poorly protective against the virus — which it may — they will have exposed many people to unnecessary risks and perhaps given people false confidence that they are protected, which undermines public health,” Dr. Charles Holmes, director of the Georgetown University Center for Innovation in Global Health, told VOA.Beijing’s global reachIt is possible that within weeks the world will see its first proven coronavirus vaccine, as some of the Phase 3 trials are expected to complete as early as November.China now has more candidates in the final stage of trial than any other nation and has been using the prospect of a vaccine’s discovery to shore up its global standing.Chinese vaccine developers are currently working with more than 40 countries and carrying out clinical trials in at least 10.The United Arab Emirates has recently approved a Chinese vaccine candidate for emergency use, making China the first nation to receive approval to deploy a COVID-19 candidate in a foreign country.Through various platforms like the Belt and Road Initiative, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Beijing has promised to prioritize doses for dozens of countries. Officials are also claiming the countries’ vaccine makers are ramping up production.“Next year, our annual capacity will reach more than 1 billion doses,” said Zheng Zhongwei, director of the National Health Commission’s Science and Technology Development Center, at a news conference last Friday.A visitor wearing a face mask looks at a model of a coronavirus and boxes for COVID-19 vaccines at a display by Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinopharm at the China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) in Beijing, Sept. 5, 2020.Despite Beijing’s asserted ability to develop and deliver vaccines, experts warned that China is not necessarily ahead in the global vaccine race.”Before a Phase 3 trial is completed and a manufacturing capacity is used, any country that has a promising vaccine candidate can be equally successful,” said Bouey.Gostin, who is also the director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law, said China and its partner countries are exposing people to significant risk by deploying the vaccine before it has completed a large-scale placebo-controlled trial.”China is trying to exploit other countries, gaining political or commercial advantage in return for the vaccine,” Gostin said.In Indonesia, China’s Sinovac Biotech promised it would help Indonesia’s state-owned drugmaker Bio Farma produce at least 40 million doses of its potential vaccine before March 2021.Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat, an academic at Universitas Islam Indonesia who researches China’s foreign policy in Indonesia, told VOA in an email that right now, there is little public attention on the risks of taking the experimental vaccine.”Most concerns are about whether the vaccine would work or not and if Indonesians have only become subjects of trial,” Rakhmat said.  
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South Korean President Moon Jae-in has apologized to the family of a civilian government official shot and killed by North Korean troops last week along a maritime border.President Moon offered the official’s family “words of deep condolences” during a meeting with his senior aides in Seoul Monday.   The official, identified only as a 47-year-old employee of South Korea’s fisheries agency, was reported missing while on duty on a fishing boat north of the western sea border, known as the Northern Limit Line.After being intercepted at sea by North Korean troops, the man was questioned, shot to death, doused with oil, and set on fire, apparently all on orders from a superior, according to the South Korean military’s version of events.North Korea has given a different account. It says the border troops, following anti-coronavirus guidelines, fired 10 gunshots at the man from a distance. When they approached his flotation device, they found only blood. They then set the floating device on fire, the statement said.Moon also apologized to the South Korean people over their “shock and fury” over the incident, saying the government is responsible for safeguarding its citizens.The president also pointed out the rare public apology offered last Friday by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, in which he is quoted as saying the man’s death was  “unsavory” and “should not have happened.”  Moon said the letter shows that Kim is taking the case seriously and is eager to prevent a complete breakdown of inter-Korean relations.  He urged Pyongyang to restore dialogue and reconnect the military communications channels it severed earlier this year.  The opposition People Power Party and other critics have accused South Korea’s military of failing to rescue the man after it was revealed that he was spotted in North Korean waters hours before he was killed.South Korea on Saturday suggested the two countries undertake a joint probe into the shooting incident. 
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A U.S. federal judge has temporarily halted a Trump administration order to ban the popular video app TikTok from U.S. app stores. The ban was due to go into effect at the end of the day Sunday by order of the U.S. Commerce Department, the latest move targeting what administration officials have said are security concerns with Chinese companies. The judge gave lawyers for TikTok and the administration until Wednesday to meet and propose a schedule for further proceedings in the case.  TikTok lawyers argued at a Sunday hearing that banning the app would infringe on the free speech rights of its users, while also bringing irreparable harm to the company’s business. “We will continue defending our rights for the benefit of our community and employees,” the company said in a statement welcoming the judge’s decision. The U.S. head office of TikTok is seen in Culver City, California, Sept. 15, 2020.The Commerce Department said after the ruling that an executive order President Donald Trump issued in August outlining concerns that TikTok collects a wide range of data that could end up in the hands of the Chinese government “is fully consistent with the law and promotes legitimate national security interests.”   The statement said the government is complying with the injunction but intends to “vigorously defend” the executive order and its implementation from legal challenges. The Trump administration also sought to shut another popular app, WeChat, out of U.S. app stores, before a judge issued an injunction a week ago stopping that ban as well.   China has rejected the U.S. allegations that the apps present security concerns, while accusing the United States of bullying Chinese companies. The Justice Department asked Friday for the WeChat ban to be allowed to go into effect while that legal case plays out, arguing that allowing the app to continue to be available to U.S. users will cause the country harm. TikTok has sought to alleviate U.S. concerns by forming a partnership with two U.S. companies, Oracle and WalMart.  The deal has not been finalized, and there have been conflicting statements among the parties about how much of the new venture each would own. Trump initially said he gave his blessing to the arrangement, before stating it would not go forward if TikTok’s parent company had any ownership stake in the new company. TikTok said after Sunday’s ruling that it will “maintain our ongoing dialogue with the government to turn our proposal, which the President gave his preliminary approval to last weekend, into an agreement.” 
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Asian governments are doing more to harass and arrest journalists reporting on the coronavirus pandemic and to keep accurate news of the crisis from reaching their populations than those in any other region, press advocates say.Tracking by the Indian village women line up outside a bank to withdraw 500 rupees received as relief money from government, during coronavirus lockdown in Fatehpur district, Uttar Pradesh state, India, May 11, 2020.Besides the arrests and lawsuits, Modi’s government had also tried convincing the country’s Supreme Court to order media outlets to clear any reports on the pandemic with the government before publishing. Although the court rejected the request, Sharma said the attempt still sent regional authorities a powerful and dangerous message.”When the top levels of government seek to clamp down on independent reporting then local authorities feel emboldened to silence journalists who are seeking public accountability, which possibly explains why we saw a slew of cases against journalists, many of whom were arrested or booked for their reports on the pandemic and the lockdown,” she told VOA.The central government’s loss at the Supreme Court has not stopped its own efforts, either.Fake news ruseAliya Iftikhar, senior researcher for the CPJ’s Asia Program, said the government has expanded its powers under existing laws and used them to target journalists reporting critically on its response to the crisis.”While press freedom has been under threat in the country in recent years, the government has plainly used the pandemic as an opportunity to crack down on critical reporting,” she said.That attitude combined with India’s exceptional size, population and COVID-19 case load all contribute to the many press freedom violations being logged there in connection with reporting on the pandemic, Iftikhar added.Rights groups say governments’ claims to be acting to curb fake news, while a genuine problem, is more ruse than reality and that many of their efforts do just the opposite.”Fake news and disinformation spreads when there is lack of genuine and correct information through the mass media,” the IPI’s Prasad said. “Governments should be working closely with the media to give a real clear picture of what’s happening in the countries instead of clamping down on them and allowing space for fake news to spread.” 
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North Korea said on Sunday it is searching for the body of a South Korean official killed by its troops but warned that South Korean naval operations in the area threatened to raise tensions.North Korean leader Kim Jong Un issued a rare apology on Friday for the fatal shooting of the South Korean fisheries official in North Korean waters.Seoul then urged Pyongyang to further investigate the fatal shooting and suggested it could be a joint probe by the two sides. South Korea’s military has accused the North’s soldiers of killing the man, dousing his body in fuel and setting it on fire near the sea border.North Korean state news agency KCNA said on Sunday that the country’s authorities were considering ways to hand over the body to the South if it is found.The report called it an “awful case which should not have happened” but warned that South Korean naval operations near the site of the incident had crossed into North Korean waters.”We urge the south side to immediately halt the intrusion across the military demarcation line in the west sea that may lead to escalation of tensions,” KCNA said.A spokesperson for South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense had no immediate comment on the North’s accusations.South Korea has mobilized 39 vessels, including 16 naval ships, and six aircraft for the search, which continued Sunday despite the North Korean complaints, South Korean news agency Yonhap said.North Korea was beginning its own search operation to recover the body, KCNA said.”We also took more necessary security measures in order to make sure that no more incident spoiling the relations of trust and respect between the north and the south would happen in any case, true to the intention of our Supreme Leadership,” the report added, without elaborating.
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An Indonesian human rights group is monitoring what it describes as “degrading” punishments handed out to people who fail to comply with mandated anti-coronavirus social restrictions and mask wearing.The punishments are unusual, such as forcing violators to spend time in an open coffin or dig graves, according to rights group Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (KontraS).The group has recorded 10 cases of degrading punishments since stay-at-home orders were issued in April for several regions of Indonesia. The nation has the highest coronavirus death toll in Southeast Asia, with more than 10,300 deaths as of Saturday, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center. Indonesia had more than 271,000 confirmed cases as of Saturday. In 2019, Indonesia had a population of 270.6 million, according to the World Bank.Rivanlee Anandar, a KontraS staff member, told VOA Indonesia that the “degrading” punishments imposed by authorities in several regions included forcing violators to lie next to a coffin. National police officers, the staffer said, were used as well as members of the Indonesian National Military (TNI) to oversee the punishments.Rivanlee said the group objected to the use of TNI members to control COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. He added that the military “should focus on national defense. … There [are] no indicators or instruments to measure the effectiveness of involving the military in handling the pandemic.””Their role in picking up people who have tested positive  [for] COVID-19 is too much. In several malls, they even take people’s temperature,” Rivanlee added.Clean sewers or pay fineEvani Jesselyn, who owns a coffee shop in Jakarta, was told she could clean public sewers or pay a fine after she was pulled over for not wearing a mask in her car during her regular commute.At the time, “I was alone, in the car, wearing my mask. However, suddenly I felt it was a bit hard to breathe, so I pulled my mask a bit to breathe some fresh air,” she said.Patients prepare to move to quarantine facilities for people showing symptoms of COVID-19 at a health center in Jakarta, Indonesia, September 25, 2020.After being pulled over, Evani was sent immediately to a hearing. She spent an hour in a crowded hall waiting to see the judge.”I was scared to jump into the crowd, and quite upset as well because I was alone inside the car and healthy and they asked me to go to the crowd with no social distancing,” she said.Evani, who opted to pay the fine, told VOA Indonesian that she would like the government to clarify its regulation on health safety and provide better health education, including “explaining why the regulation exists.”Arifin, the head of the Jakarta Provincial Public Order office, said while more people are aware of the need to wear face masks in public, police find some aren’t wearing them correctly.“Some wear the mask under their chin or below their neck. This, of course, won’t prevent COVID-19 transmission,” Arifin, who like many Indonesians uses only one name, said in an online discussion on September 17.He said his office was stepping up educational outreach on how to wear masks correctly.That effort includes sanctioning those who violate the mandated mask rule, either by failing to wear a mask or wearing one incorrectly.Workers lower a coffin containing the body of a suspected COVID-19 victim into a grave during a burial at a special section of Pondok Ranggon cemetery, in Jakarta, Indonesia, Sept. 24, 2020.$162K in finesArifin said as many as 164,000 people have received sanctions ranging from fines to public service for wearing masks incorrectly.The public order office has collected $162,843.79 in fines from the operation in a country where the per capita income was $4,135 in 2019, according to the Indonesian children wearing face masks as a precaution against coronavirus outbreak play on swings in Jakarta, Indonesia, Sept. 23, 2020.Agus Pambagio, a public policy analyst, would like to see regional governments impose $68 fines for people who don’t wear masks.“There are no countries in the world whose people are disciplined without being fined first. So, if you want people to have discipline, don’t just ‘advise’ them,” Agus Pambagio told VOA Indonesia.Fines, not memosHe criticized the central government for issuing memos and ministerial regulations rather than working with the House of Representatives to institute a uniform schedule of fines.The national COVID-19 Task Force and the Jakarta Province Health Department have not responded to VOA’s request to respond to KontraS on the unusual punishments.However, in a press conference in the presidential office, COVID-19 Task Force spokesperson Wiku Adisasmito said that it is mandatory for the people of Jakarta to take personal health protections, such as wearing face masks.Fitri Wulandari contributed to this report.
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South Korea said on Saturday it is demanding the North further investigate the killing of a South Korean fisheries official and suggested the two countries undertake a joint probe into the shooting incident.”We have decided to demand the North carry out a further probe and request a joint investigation if necessary,” South Korea’s presidential office said in a statement after a National Security Council meeting late Friday.South Korea will continue its own investigation because of “discrepancies” in the explanations the North has provided about the shooting, the statement said.The South’s main opposition People Power Party said Saturday that Kim’s apology was not genuine. It called on President Moon Jae-in’s government to present the case to the International Criminal Court and the U.N. Security Council.North Korean leader Kim Jong Un offered a rare public apology Friday after the killing of the South’s civilian official near the countries’ disputed sea border.South Korea’s military on Thursday accused North Korean forces of shooting and cremating the official, who Seoul believes may have been trying to defect to the North.According to a statement announced by South Korea’s presidential office, Kim is “greatly sorry” for disappointing South Koreans over the incident. The statement said the death was “unsavory” and “should not have happened.”The 47-year-old went missing Monday from his patrol boat about 10 kilometers south of the de facto inter-Korean border. Seoul officials suspect the man, who had reportedly struggled with debt and other personal issues, jumped overboard with a flotation device.After being intercepted at sea by North Korean troops, the man was questioned, shot to death, doused with oil, and set on fire, apparently all on orders from a superior, according to the South Korean military’s version of events.North Korea gave a different account. It says the border troops, following anti-coronavirus guidelines, fired 10 gunshots at the man from a distance. When they approached his flotation device, they found only blood. They then set the floating device on fire, the statement said.Rare apologyNorth Korea’s apology was delivered to Seoul by the North’s United Front Department, a ruling party body that handles inter-Korean ties. The letter expressed hope that “trust and relations” between the two Koreas will not be hurt.It is extremely rare for North Korea to apologize. Following some past killings of South Korean civilians, the North expressed “regret,” often later blaming Seoul for the incidents.With Kim’s apparent apology, the risk of escalation has been reduced, said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul. He says the killing could have led to “tit-for-tat violations” of a military agreement meant to reduce tensions along the frontier.“The shooting incident was also turning South Korean public opinion against offering peace and humanitarian assistance to Pyongyang. Kim’s diplomatic move avoids a potential fight in the short-term and preserves the option of reaping longer-term benefits from Seoul,” he added.The shooting incident is awkwardly timed for South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who this week used a video speech at the United Nations General Assembly to call for an end-of-war declaration between North and South Korea. He also called for coronavirus-related cooperation.The left-leaning Moon, who wants to improve ties with Pyongyang before he leaves office in 2022, has been trying to convince the North to return to the dialogue and cooperation that marked the beginning of his five-year term.Moon-Kim lettersSouth Korea on Friday revealed that Kim recently exchanged letters with Moon, the first known recent dialogue between the two leaders.In a letter dated September 12, Kim expressed sympathies for South Koreans battling the coronavirus, as well as recent typhoons.“I sincerely wish for everyone’s well-being,” Kim said in the letter, which was released in full by the South Korean Blue House. Moon had sent Kim a message on September 8, according to Seoul.Earlier this year, North Korea cut communications channels with the South and blew up the two countries’ de facto embassy after complaining about South Korean activists who launched balloons filled with anti-Pyongyang propaganda across the border.In June, Kim unexpectedly called off the pressure campaign. Since then, North Korea has been primarily focused on domestic issues, such as the coronavirus pandemic and devastating floods.Coronavirus lockdownNorth Korea has since issued “shoot-to-kill” orders to prevent the coronavirus from entering the country from China, the top U.S. commander in South Korea, General Robert Abrams, said earlier this month.The coronavirus-related security zones were first reported by the Daily NK, a Seoul-based news website with sources in North Korea. The outlet said the new rules stipulated that anyone “breaking rules or disrupting public order near the border will be shot without warning.” The rules apply to all areas of the country, it said.“North Korea is locked down almost as in a wartime situation to prevent COVID-19 outbreaks,” said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.North Korea for months said it had no coronavirus infections, but eventually backed away from that assertion.In July, a 24-year-old man who had fled North Korea swam back into the country, after being accused of rape in South Korea. That incident prompted the North to lock down a border area, ostensibly because of coronavirus concerns.
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For people around the world, the coronavirus has caused distressing separations and delayed homecomings. But the situation for a group of 25 residents from remote Easter Island stands out.  
For six months now the group has been stranded far across a vast stretch of ocean on Tahiti in French Polynesia. Children remain separated from their parents, husbands from their wives.  
Mihinoa Terakauhau Pont, a 21-year-old mom who is among those stranded, is due to give birth to her second son any day now but can’t have her husband by her side because he’s back home. Her grief has left her exhausted.
“I can’t cry anymore,” she said. “My heart is cold.”
Usually considered a tropical paradise, Tahiti has become a kind of prison to them. Many arrived in March planning to stay for just a few weeks — they’d come for work, or a vacation, or for medical procedures. But they got stuck when the virus swept across the globe and their flights back home were canceled.
Each day they have been going to the authorities and begging for help in Spanish, in French, and in English. They’ve considered chartering a plane or trying to hitch a lift on a military ship to make the journey of some 4,200 kilometers (2,600 miles). But each time their hopes rise a little, their plans turn out to be too expensive or impractical.
Home to about 8,000 people, Easter Island is a tiny speck in the vast Pacific Ocean, located midway between Polynesia, in the South Pacific, and South America. Also named Rapa Nui, the Chilean territory is renowned for its imposing moai — giant heads carved from volcanic rock by inhabitants hundreds of years ago. For Easter Islanders, Tahiti has long been a stopping-off point, a connection to the rest of the world.
Until the virus struck, LATAM airlines ran a regular return route from Santiago, Chile, to Easter Island and on to Tahiti. LATAM said it suspended the route in March because of the virus and doesn’t have a timeline for restarting it. No other airlines offer a similar service.
“The resumption of this flight is subject to the development of the pandemic and travel restrictions in place,” the airline said in a statement.
Terakauhau Pont arrived in Tahiti in January to visit her first son, who was staying on a nearby island with her parents. She was due to fly home in March. As the weeks trying to get a flight back slipped into months, she heard from afar that her husband had lost his job at a hotel because of the downturn in the tourism industry caused by the virus.
Now, Terakauhau Pont’s mother has started a garden and her father is going fishing so they have enough food to eat each day.
“It’s the only way to survive,” she said.
She has pleaded with the authorities to help, and has even written to leaders in mainland Chile and on Easter Island, but without any success.  
“It is so much grief for all of us,” she said.
She said the person who has done the most to help is Kissy Baude, a 40-year-old administrative technician who has lived in Tahiti for years but was due to start a new job on her native Easter Island in April.  
Because of her contacts on Tahiti, Baude has become the unofficial leader of the group — its social worker, psychologist and spokesperson. Baude said the group has survived thanks to the generosity of Tahitians, who have been providing them with food and accommodation long after many of them ran out of their own resources.
Baude said that before the virus struck, she was eagerly anticipating returning to Easter Island. She was looking forward to seeing her mother, who has a room prepared and waiting. But now, her mother’s husband also remains stranded with her on Tahiti, after traveling there for colon surgery in March.
Baude said one option they’ve been exploring is to fly a circuitous route to Los Angeles and then to Santiago and hope they get repatriated from there. But even then their return isn’t certain and many in the group can’t afford the expense.
Among the 16 females and nine males stranded are seven children aged between 2 and 14. And the clan is expected to grow by one on about Oct. 3, the day Terakauhau Pont is due to give birth to a son that she and her husband plan to name Anuihere.
Some in the group have struggled to find enough money simply to eat, while others have found it tough going emotionally. Lately, they have been able to collect some money online after setting up two donation pages.
Baude gets emotional when talking about their situation. She said some of them fear speaking up in case they face repercussions back on Easter Island, but she isn’t afraid.
“We just want to go back to our homeland,” she said.
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Jum’s words tumble out over the phone, his voice growing ever more frantic.
 
Between sobs, he says he’s trapped on a Malaysian plantation run by government owned Felda, one of the world’s largest palm oil companies. His boss confiscated and then lost his Indonesian passport, he says, leaving him vulnerable to arrest. Night after night, he has been forced to hide from authorities, sleeping on the jungle floor, exposed to the wind and the rain. His biggest fear: the roaming tigers.
 
All the while, Jum says his supervisor demanded he keep working, tending the heavy reddish-orange palm oil fruit that has made its way into the supply chains of the planet’s most iconic food and cosmetics companies like Unilever, L’Oreal, Nestle and Procter & Gamble.
 
“I am not a free man anymore,” he says, his voice cracking. “I desperately want to see my mom and dad. I want to go home!”
 
An Associated Press investigation found many like Jum in Malaysia and neighboring Indonesia – an invisible workforce consisting of millions of laborers from some of the poorest corners of Asia, many of them enduring various forms of exploitation, with the most serious abuses including child labor, outright slavery and allegations of rape. Together, the two countries produce about 85 percent of the world’s estimated $65 billion palm oil supply.
 
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. It’s in paints, plywood, pesticides and pills. It’s also present in animal feed, biofuels and even hand sanitizer.
 
The AP interviewed more than 130 current and former workers from two dozen palm oil companies who came from eight countries and labored on plantations across wide swaths of Malaysia and Indonesia. Almost all had complaints about their treatment, with some saying they were cheated, threatened, held against their will or forced to work off unsurmountable debts. Others said they were regularly harassed by authorities, swept up in raids and detained in government facilities.
 
They included members of Myanmar’s long-persecuted Rohingya minority, who fled ethnic cleansing in their homeland only to be sold into the palm oil industry. Fishermen who escaped years of slavery on boats also described coming ashore in search of help, but instead ending up being trafficked onto plantations — sometimes with police involvement.  
 
The AP used the most recently published data from producers, traders and buyers of the world’s most-consumed vegetable oil, as well as U.S. Customs records, to link the laborers’ palm oil and its derivatives from the mills that process it to the supply chains of top Western companies like the makers of Oreo cookies, Lysol cleaners and Hershey’s chocolate treats.  
 
Reporters witnessed some abuses firsthand and reviewed police reports, complaints made to labor unions, videos and photos smuggled out of plantations and local media stories to corroborate accounts wherever possible. In some cases, reporters tracked down people who helped enslaved workers escape. More than a hundred rights advocates, academics, clergy members, activists and government officials also were interviewed.
 
Though labor issues have largely been ignored, the punishing effects of palm oil on the environment have been decried for years. Still, giant Western financial institutions like Deutsche Bank, BNY Mellon, Citigroup, HSBC and the Vanguard Group have continued to help fuel a crop that has exploded globally, soaring from just 5 million tons in 1999 to 72 million today, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The U.S. alone has seen a 900 percent spike in demand during that same time.  
 
Sometimes they invest directly but, increasingly, third parties are used like Malaysia-based Maybank, one of the world’s biggest palm oil financiers, which not only provides capital to growers but, in some cases, processes the plantations’ payrolls. Financial crime experts say that in an industry rife with a history of problems, banks should flag arbitrary and inconsistent wage deductions as potential indicators of forced labor.  
 
“This has been the industry’s hidden secret for decades,” said Gemma Tillack of the U.S.-based Rainforest Action Network, which has exposed labor abuses on palm oil plantations. “The buck stops with the banks. It is their funding that makes this system of exploitation possible.”
 
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. Many foreign workers end up fleeced by a syndicate of recruiters and corrupt officials and often are unable to speak the local language, rendering them especially susceptible to trafficking and other abuses.  
 
They sometimes pay up to $5,000 just to get their jobs, an amount that could take years to earn in their home countries, often showing up for work already crushed by debt. Many have their passports seized by company officials to keep them from running away, which the United Nations recognizes as a potential flag of forced labor.
 
Countless others remain off the books and are especially scared of speaking out. They include migrants working without documentation and children who AP reporters witnessed squatting in the fields like crabs, picking up loose fruit alongside their parents. Many women also work for free or on a day-to-day basis, earning the equivalent of as little as $2 a day, sometimes for decades.
 
The AP is not identifying most of the workers or their specific plantations to protect their safety, based on previous instances of retaliation. Many of the interviews took place secretly in homes or coffeeshops in towns and villages near the plantations, sometimes late at night.
 
The Malaysian government was contacted by the AP repeatedly over the course of a week, but issued no comment. Felda also did not respond, but its commercial arm, FGV Holdings Berhad, said it had been working to address workers’ complaints on its own plantations, including making improvements in recruitment practices and ensuring that foreign laborers have access to their passports.
 
Indonesians such as Jum make up the vast majority of palm oil workers worldwide, including in Malaysia, where most locals shun the dirty, low-paying jobs. The two nations share a similar language and a porous border, but their close ties do not guarantee safe employment.  
 
Unable to find a job at home, Jum says he went to Malaysia in 2013, signing a contract through an agent to work on a Felda plantation for three years. He endured the harsh conditions because his family needed the money, but says he asked to leave as soon as his time was up. Instead, he says, his contract was extended twice against his will.
 
He says he initially was housed with other Indonesians in a crude metal shipping container, sweltering in the tropical heat. Later, his bed consisted of a bamboo mat next to a campfire, with no protection from the elements and the snakes and other deadly animals foraging in the jungle.  
 
“Sometimes I sleep under thousands of stars, but other nights it is totally dark. The wind is very cold, like thousands of razors piercing my skin, especially during a downpour,” he says. “I feel that I was deliberately abandoned by the company. Now, my hope is only one: Get back home.”
 
He has lived this way too long, he tells the AP over the phone — scared to stay, and scared to leave.
 “Please help me!” he begs.
 
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. It had a long shelf life, remained nearly solid at room temperature and didn’t smoke up kitchens, even when used for deep-frying.
 
When researchers started warning that trans fats like those found in margarine posed serious health risks, demand for palm oil soared even higher.
 
Just about every part of the fruit is used in manufacturing, from the outer flesh to the inner kernel, and the versatility of the oil itself and its derivatives seem endless.
 
It helps keep oily substances from separating and turns instant noodles into steaming cups of soup, just by adding hot water. It’s used in baby formula, non-dairy creamers and supplements and is listed on the labels of everything from Jif Natural peanut butter to Kit Kat candy bars.
 
Often hidden amid a list of scientific names on labels, it’s equally useful in a host of cleansers and makeup products. It bubbles in shampoo, foams in Colgate toothpaste, moisturizes Dove soap and helps keep lipstick from melting.
 
But the convenience comes with a cost: For workers, harvesting the fruit can be brutal.
The uneven jungle terrain is rough and sometimes flooded. The palms themselves serve as a wind barrier, creating sauna-like conditions, and harvesters need incredible strength to hoist long poles with sickles into the towering trees.
 
Each day, they must balance the tool while carefully slicing down spiky fruit bunches heavy enough to maim or kill, tending hundreds of trees over expanses that can stretch beyond 10 football fields. Those who fail to meet impossibly high quotas can see their wages reduced, sometimes forcing entire families into the fields to make the daily number.
 
“I work as a helper with my husband to pick up loose fruit. I do not get paid,” said Yuliana, who labors on a plantation owned by London Sumatra, which has a history of labor issues and is owned by one of the world’s largest instant-noodle makers.
 
Muhamad Waras, head of sustainability at London Sumatra, responded that wage issues and daily harvesting quotes are regularly discussed and that workers without documents are prohibited.
 
The AP talked to some female workers from other companies who said they were sexually harassed and even raped in the fields, including some minors.
 
Workers also complained about a lack of access to medical care or clean water, sometimes collecting rain runoff to wash the residue from their bodies after spraying dangerous pesticides or scattering fertilizer.
 
While previous media reports have mostly focused on a single company or plantation, the AP investigation is the most comprehensive dive into labor abuses industrywide.
 
It found widespread problems on plantations big and small, including some that meet certification standards set by the global Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, an association that promotes ethical production — including the treatment of workers — and whose members include growers, buyers, traders and environmental watchdogs.  
 
Some of the same companies that display the RSPO’s green palm logo signifying its seal of approval are accused of continuing to grab land from indigenous people and destroying virgin rainforests that are home to orangutans and other critically endangered species. They contribute to climate change by cutting down trees, draining carbon-rich peatlands and using illegal slash-and-burn clearing that routinely blankets parts of Southeast Asia in a thick haze.
 
When asked for comment, some product manufacturers acknowledged the industry’s history of labor and environmental problems, and all said they do not tolerate any human rights abuses, including unpaid wages and forced labor. Most stressed they were working toward obtaining only ethically sourced palm oil, pushing governments to make systemic changes, and taking immediate steps to investigate when alerted to troubling issues and suspending relationships with palm oil producers that fail to address grievances.
 
Nestle, Unilever and LÓreal were among the companies that noted they had stopped purchasing directly from Felda or its commercial affiliate, FGV. Eliminating tainted palm oil is difficult, however, because labor problems are so endemic and most big buyers are dependent on a tangled network of third-party suppliers.
 
While some companies, such as Ikea, Colgate-Palmolive and Unilever, directly confirmed the use of palm oil or its derivatives in their products, others refused to say or provided minimal information, sometimes even when “palm oil” was clearly listed on labels. Others said it was difficult to know if their products contained the ingredient because, in items such as cosmetics and cleaning supplies, some names listed on labels could instead be derived from coconut oil or a synthetic form.  
 
“I understand why companies are struggling because palm oil has such a bad reputation,” said said Didier Bergeret, director of social sustainability at the Consumer Goods Forum, a global industry group. “Even if it’s sustainable, they don’t feel like talking about it whatsoever.”
 
In response to the criticism, Malaysia and Indonesia have long touted the golden crop as vital to alleviating poverty, saying small-time farmers are able to grow their own palm oil and large industrial estates provide much-needed jobs to workers from poor areas.  
 
Nageeb Wahab, head of the Malaysian Palm oil Association, a government-supported umbrella group, called the allegations against the industry unwarranted. He noted that all the companies in his association, which are most of the country’s mid- and larger operations, must meet certification standards.
 
“I am surprised with all the allegations made. All of them are not true,” he said. “There may be violations by some, but definitely it is isolated and not from our members’ plantations.”
 
But Soes Hindharno, spokesman for the Indonesian Ministry of Manpower and Transmigration, told the AP that many Indonesian workers who cross over to Malaysia illegally to work on plantations “are easily intimidated, their wages are cut or they are threatened with reporting and deportation.” Some have their passports seized by their employers, he said.
 
He added that many of the concerns raised by AP about labor conditions in Indonesia had not been brought to his level, but said any company found not following government rules and regulations could face sanctions, including having their operations shut down.
 
The AP traveled to Jum’s Felda plantation in Malaysia earlier this year to meet with him, but calls to his cell phone went unanswered. Fellow workers confirmed he no longer slept in the barracks and instead, vulnerable with no identity papers, had to hide from the police.
 
Jum’s co-workers at least had a roof covering their heads, but their shelter resembled a barn. The filthy kitchen had a hotplate and just a few pots and pans. Only two outdoor squat toilets were functional, forcing many men to share, and a mold-covered cement trough served as a communal basin for washing. Pesticide sprayers were stacked along the metal walls, just feet from their bunks.  
 
The men said they were forced to work unpaid overtime every day. One complained of abdominal pain, saying he was too sick to go to the fields and had been asking the company to give him back his passport so he could return home. He said he was told he must pay more than $700 to leave – money he did not have.
 
“We work until we are dying,” said a worker sitting in a room with two other colleagues.
 Their eyes filled with tears after learning Felda was one of the world’s largest palm oil producers.  
 
“They use this palm oil to make all these products,” he said. “It makes us very sad.”
 
And the global pandemic has only complicated matters, limiting the flow of workers and contributing to even greater labor shortages in Malaysia.
 
The workers AP interviewed came from Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, the Philippines and Cambodia, along with Myanmar, which represents the newest army of exploited laborers.  
 
Among the latter are stateless Rohingya Muslims such as Sayed.
 
Decades of oppression and outbreaks of violence have sent nearly a million Rohingya fleeing Myanmar in the last five years. Sayed was among those who escaped by boat — only to be held hostage, he said, and tortured by human traffickers in a jungle camp in Thailand.  
 
After his relatives paid a ransom, Sayed said he was sent to Muslim-majority Malaysia, where thousands of Rohingya have sought refuge. He heard about a job paying workers without permits the equivalent of $14 a day, so he jumped into the back of a truck with eight other men and watched for hours as the busy highways narrowed to a dirt mountain track surrounded by an endless green carpet of palm oil trees.  
 
Once on the plantation, Sayed said he lived in an isolated lean-to, dependent on his boss to bring what little rice and dried fish he was given to eat. He said he escaped after working a month and was later arrested, spending a year and a half in an immigration detention center, where guards beat him.
 
“There is no justice,” he said. “People here say, ‘This is not your country, we will do whatever we want.’”
 
Shamshu, who also is Rohingya, said he, too, made a run from his plantation after realizing he would never get paid. But that didn’t end his troubles.
 
Shamshu had a U.N.-issued refugee card, which can provide some protection even though Malaysia does not recognize it as a legal document, but he and others said it’s common for authorities to tear them up. He said he was stopped by police and spent four months in prison and then six months in an immigration detention center, where he was flogged.  
 
During one beating, he described how a guard smashed his face against a wall, while two others pinned his arms and legs. Similar stories were repeated to the AP by several other migrant workers, including Vannak Anan Prum, a Cambodian who published a graphic novel in 2018 depicting his abuse.
 
“There is still a scar … and I still have pain,” Shamshu said of his caning. “I think it was connected to electricity because I passed out.”
 
In some of the worst cases of abuse, migrant workers said they fled one kind of servitude for another, detailing how they were trafficked, sold and enslaved not once, but twice.  
 
Five men from Cambodia and Myanmar told the AP strikingly similar stories about being forced to work on Thai fishing boats for years at different times. They said they managed to break free while docking in Sarawak, Malaysia, before being scooped up by police and quickly sold again onto plantations.
 
“In Cambodia, I often heard my parents talking about the hardship of their lives under the Khmer Rouge regime, but I myself have met this hardship, too, when I worked at the Thai fishing boat and at the Malaysian palm oil plantation,” said Sren Brohim, 48, who escaped by offering to fish for free in exchange for a boat ride home. “Working at these two places was like working in hell.”
 
Rights groups confirmed being double-trafficked is not uncommon, especially five to 10 years ago, when recruiters and human traffickers would wait along the coast for runaway fishermen.
 
Last year in Malaysia, another Cambodian man who said he spent five years enslaved at sea and four more on plantations was among those who surfaced. Instead of being repatriated as a victim of human trafficking, rights groups said he was jailed for months for being in the country illegally.  
 
A Burmese man, Zin Ko Ko Htwe, said he also was brought to a plantation after escaping from a boat in 2008 and spent several months working there, without being paid. He decided to run one day, but said his supervisors chased him down, pulled out a gun and surrounded him.  
 
“Come out!” he recalled them yelling. “If you don’t, we will kill you!”
Ko Htwe was taken back to the plantation, where he said his bosses tied his hands together and, at gunpoint, told him to kneel before the other workers as a warning. He eventually managed to escape but didn’t make it home until 2016 — nearly a decade after he left.
 
“We gave our sweat and blood for palm oil,” Ko Htwe said. “We were forced to work and were abused.”
 
When Americans and Europeans see palm oil is listed as an ingredient in their snacks, he said, they should know “it’s the same as consuming our sweat and blood.”
 
The palm industry’s dominance is perhaps best grasped by viewing its footprint from 35,000 feet in the air. Trees planted in neat rows stretch across miles of flatlands in both countries, straddling coffee-colored rivers and eventually ringing terraced mountains for as far as the eye can see, creating a patchwork of green nearly the size of Kansas.  
It’s easy to understand the allure, considering that crops like rapeseed, sesame and corn require a lot more land while producing far less oil.
 
Malaysia and Indonesia started ramping up commercial production in the 1960s and ’70s, supported by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, which saw palm oil as an engine for economic growth in the developing world. Today, following advances in transportation and capabilities in refining, the two countries have a near-monopoly on the global supply, even as production expands across Africa and Latin America, where a litany of labor abuses also have been reported.
 
China and India have become major customers, and the crop now is being eyed as a potential energy source for power plants, ships and airplanes, which would create even more demand.  
 
“If the whole Western world would stop using palm oil, I don’t think that would make any difference,” said Gerrit van Duijn, a former refineries manager at Unilever, one of the world’s largest palm oil buyers for food and personal care products.
 
The trees take only three or four years to mature and then bear fruit year-round for up to three decades. But most companies can’t maintain the pace of expansion without outside funding. Every 10,000 acres of new planting requires up to $50 million, van Duijn estimates.
 
Asian banks are by far the most robust financiers of the plantations, but Western lenders and investment companies have poured almost $12 billion into palm oil plantations in the last five years alone, allowing for the razing and replanting of ever-expanding tracts of land, according to Forest and Finance, a database run by six nonprofit organizations that track money flowing to palm oil companies. The U.S institutions BNY Mellon, Charles Schwab Corp., Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Citigroup Inc., along with Europe’s HSBC, Standard Chartered, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse and Prudential, together account for $3.5 billion of that, according to the data.
 
Other contributors include U.S. state pensions and teachers’ unions, including CalPERS, California’s massive public employees fund, and insurance companies such as State Farm, meaning that even conscientious consumers many unwittingly be supporting the industry just by visiting ATMs, mortgaging homes, insuring cars or investing in 401K retirement accounts.  
 
Bank of America, HSBC, Standard Chartered, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, CalPERS and State Farm responded by noting their policies vowing to support sustainability practices in the palm oil industry, with many also incorporating human rights into their guidelines. JPMorgan Chase declined comment, and BNY Mellon, Citigroup and Prudential did not respond. Charles Schwab called its investment “small.”
 
Some, including Norway’s government pension — the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, worth about $1 trillion — have divested or distanced themselves from palm oil companies in recent years.
 
But Norway and many big-name banks and financial institutions around the globe continue to maintain ties with Malaysia’s biggest bank, Malayan Banking Berhad. More commonly known as Maybank, it has provided almost $4 billion in financing to Southeast Asia’s palm oil industry between 2015 and 2020, or about 10 percent of all loans and underwriting services, according to Forests and Finance.  
 
Though the group accuses Maybank of having some of the loosest social and environmental assessment policies in the industry, its shareholders include institutions such as the Vanguard Group, BlackRock and State Street Corp.
 
The biggest gains for banks affiliated with palm oil come from big-ticket financial services, such as corporate loans. But some of the same institutions also offer banking services for workers, handling payrolls and installing ATM machines inside plantations.
 
“And this is where banks, such as Maybank, may find themselves at the heart of a forced-labor problem,” said Duncan Jepson, managing director of the global anti-trafficking nonprofit group Liberty Shared. “Financial institutions have ethical and contractual obligations to all their clients, as set out in the customer charters. In this case, that means both the palm oil company and its workers.”
 
Jepson said abnormal paycheck deductions are commonplace industry-wide, which should trigger investigations by the banks’ risk management teams into possible money-laundering.
 
In a statement, Maybank expressed surprise at the criticism of its standards, saying that “we reject any insinuation that Maybank may be involved in any unethical behavior.” The bank said it had not received any complaints about worker paychecks and “does not arbitrarily make deductions to client accounts unless instructed or authorized to do so by the account holder.” It said it would immediately investigate any complaints brought forward. It also pushed back against allegations that it has loose social governance standards.
 
Asked for comment on their investments, BlackRock reiterated its commitment to sustainable practices, Vanguard said it monitors companies in its portfolio for human rights abuses, and State Street did not respond.
 
Jepson’s organization filed a petition with the U.S. government earlier this year, citing allegations of child and forced labor, and seeking a ban on all palm oil imports from Sime Darby Plantation. The giant Malaysian-based producer told the AP that it has taken several steps to address labor concerns, including setting up a multilingual worker helpline. Two similar petitions were filed last year by other groups against FGV Holding, Felda’s commercial arm.  
 
FGV Holdings, which employs nearly 30,000 foreign workers and manages about 1 million acres, has a 50/50 joint-venture with American consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble Company. FGV Holdings has been under fire for labor abuses and was sanctioned by the RSPO certification group two years ago.
 
Nurul Hasanah Ahamed Hassain Malim, FGV’s head of sustainability, noted that while the company is striving to make improvements, the issues raised stretch beyond just FGV and that the government also should play a role in protecting migrant workers.
“It is an industry issue. And I would say that it’s not only specific to plantations — you would see that in other sectors as well,” she said.
 
Several workers at different companies, including Jum’s plantation, showed the AP their pay stubs and ledgers documenting daily wages. Some noted they were regularly docked for not meeting quotas or shorted on their salaries every month, sometimes for years, to pay off the brokers who recruited them. In one case, more than 40 percent was subtracted from a Malaysian employee’s earnings, including a deduction for electricity.  
 
Some months, Jum and the others said they made as little as $10 a day. Most labored the same hours, doing identical jobs, but said they never knew what amount to expect until checking the Maybank accounts where their salaries were deposited each month.
 
Karim, a Bangladeshi worker who arrived in Malaysia legally 12 years ago after being promised a position in an electronics company, said he wound up working for a subcontractor on many large plantations owned by the biggest companies.
 
“I have been cheated five times in six years,” he said, adding that once when he asked for his unpaid wages, his boss “threatened to run me over with his car.”
 
Many of these conditions should not be a surprise to companies buying palm oil and those helping finance the plantations.
 
The U.S. State Department has long linked the palm oil industry in Malaysia and Indonesia to exploitation and trafficking. And a 2018 report released by the Consumer Goods Forum found indicators of forced labor on estates in both countries — essentially putting the network’s 400 CEOs on alert. Its members include palm oil customers like Nestle, General Mills Inc., PepsiCo Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Company and Johnson & Johnson.  
 
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 coached on what to say during auditors’ scheduled visits when only the best conditions are often showcased for sustainability certification.  
 
It’s a system that keeps those like Jum from ever being seen.
 
Soon after his phone call with the AP pleading for help, Jum decides to slip away from his plantation, without even telling his friends goodbye. Instead, he sends them an abrupt text saying he’s had enough and will try to find an illegal boat home to Indonesia.  
It’s a dangerous plan. The risk of getting caught or dying at sea is all too real. He could simply disappear.
 
Days pass with no word. But finally, Jum emerges: He has reached the Malaysian coast, but doesn’t have enough money to pay smugglers for the trip home. He is huddled in a small metal hut to avoid being spotted, wiping away tears and running his hands through thick tangles of black hair.
 
“If I get caught,” he tells the AP on a video call, “I’m afraid that I will not be able to see my mother again.”  
 
Jum is hiding in a popular corridor for migrants without papers, and authorities are aggressively patrolling the area. Smooth-talking brokers also are on the hunt, waiting to pounce on vulnerable workers and promising safe passage for a price that often climbs once a trip begins.  
 
Jum has always shielded his family from his troubles and the thought of turning to them for help fills him with shame. But as the days continue, he has no choice: He makes the call and they borrow the money needed to finally bring him home.  
 
When it’s time to go, Jum spends the night in the forest with a group of fellow Indonesians also nervous about the risky crossing. He readies himself to plunge into the disorienting blackness of the South China Sea before dawn to swim to the waiting boat, one of the most treacherous legs of the journey.
 
Once Jum climbs aboard, totally spent, he quickly realizes to his horror that the man who extracted $600 in exchange for transport all the way to his village has disappeared. He tries to ask what happened but is silenced and told to hand over his phone unless he wants it tossed into the water.
 
“No questions!” the captain screams at him. “Do you want to live or die?”
 
Jum spends the journey relentlessly scanning the water for lights from border patrol vessels that could catch them as the boat is slammed by waves powerful enough to capsize it. He doesn’t relax until he touches Indonesian sand.
 
He is safe. But he also is broke, and his family remains thousands of miles away. He looks for work, but no one will hire him without proper identification papers — his Indonesian ID card, which says he is 32, expired years ago – so he relies on strangers for food and shelter.  
 
After a stretch of silence, Jum finally reaches out to the AP again – crying, wracked with hunger. The AP asks if he wants to be put in touch with the local International Organization for Migration office, which takes him to a shelter and designates him as a victim of trafficking. He is quarantined due to a mounting number of coronavirus cases until at last — three months after fleeing his plantation — he is placed on a plane home.  
 
His excitement at seeing his family is muted by the humiliation he feels returning empty-handed after working on the plantation for seven years. But it doesn’t matter to them.
 
“For my parents, the most important thing was that I came back home safe and healthy,” he says. “I felt so relieved when my feet stepped back in my home village. It’s a great relief, like someone who just escaped punishment. … I feel like a free man!”
 
With just an elementary school education, Jum’s only job now is tending a neighbor’s rice fields for almost no money. It’s a problem many migrant workers face: Are their families better off when they’re away? At least then there’s one less mouth to feed, and they’re able to send a little cash home.  
 
Brokers often jump on those who have returned home to such little opportunity, trying to lure them away again with renewed promises of riches.  
 
So it’s no surprise when the phone call comes from an agent in Malaysia who already has obtained Jum’s new number.
 
Come back, the agent assures him. Things will be better this time. Just come back.
…