Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/599604
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 11 NOVEMBER 2015 News 41 North Koreans toiling at Leisure Clothing JAMES DEBONO 41 North Koreans are currently working at Leisure Clothing, the Chinese company facing allega- tions of exploitation and human trafficking. A total of 10 applications were approved this year, ETC chair- man Clyde Caruana confirmed. All 10 were approved in January. No further permits for North Korean workers have been is- sued since then. In November last year ETC told MaltaToday that 26 North Koreans were em- ployed at Leisure Clothing. The exploitation of North Korean workers was recently f lagged by the European Alli- ance for Human Rights in North Korea, which accused Malta and Poland of employing "forced la- bour" from North Korea. The report alleged that North Korean workers routinely toil under poor conditions, with much of their wages deducted automatically to subsidise Kim Jong-Un's regime. While most of the 50,000 North Koreans on such schemes are currently working in Asian and Middle Eastern countries – some 1,800 are believed to be helping Qatar in its preparations for the 2022 World Cup – up to 1,000 may be working in the EU, the report's authors said. In another report to the UN General Assembly, Marzuki Da- rusman, United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, revealed that North Korean workers are being used as a new source of income for the North Korean govern- ment. Darusman claimed that these workers earn $120-$150 per month on average and are some- times forced to work up to 20 hours a day, with only one or two rest days a month and insuf- ficient food. Employers pay "sig- nificantly higher amounts" to the North Korean government, he claimed. Questions sent to the Depart- ment for Industrial and Em- ployment Relations (DIER) and Identity Malta on whether these international reports are being investigated locally have not been answered. The ETC replied that respon- sibility for investigating such re- ports falls under DIER's remit. Identity Malta became respon- sible for the issue of employment licences to third country nation- als residing in Malta as from July 2014. The applications are still reviewed by the ETC. Work licences for Chinese em- ployed at Leisure Clothing have been issued automatically since 1986 thanks to a quota agree- ment between the company and the government, which logs the number Maltese employees to that of Chinese employees ac- cording to a pre-established ra- tio, which was originally set at four Chinese workers for each Maltese worker employed. The agreement was renewed by suc- cessive Nationalist administra- tions. Last year the newly elected La- bour government changed the quota agreement to enable the company to employ five Chi- nese nationals for every Maltese employed. A drop in Chinese workers during the past years was also compensated by an increase of workers from other South Asian countries. Workers from Vietnam and North Korea have only been employed since 2013. The factory employs some 300 Chinese, Vietnamese and North Korean nationals who were allegedly attracted to Malta with a promise of high wages Aung San Suu Kyi vows to lead Myanmar Myanmar's most famous daughter, Aung San Suu Kyi is set to become the Southeast Asian country's Prime Minister after her National League for Democracy (NLD) won a resounding victory in the first democratic elections the country has had in 25 years. Early results point to a sweeping victory for the NLD but final official results will not be known for days. A quarter of Myanmar's 664 parliamentary seats are set aside for the army, and for the NLD to have the winning majority it will need at least two-thirds of the contested seats. But Suu Kyi – who spent years under house arrest and is barred from becoming President - yesterday said that her party won around 75% of the vote and vowed to lead the new government bypassing the president