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The rise of robots in manufacturing in Southeast Asia is likely to fuel modern slavery as workers who end up unemployed due to automation face abuses competing for a shrinking pool of low-paid jobs in a "race to the bottom", analysts said on Thursday.
Drastic job losses due to the growth of automation in the region - a hub for many manufacturing sectors from garments to vehicles - could produce a spike in labour abuses and slavery in global supply chains, said risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft.
American experts on Wednesday warned of the threat posed by the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETÖ) in the country."I believe that the Gülen movement in the U.S. presents a unique and unusual security threat," said Mark Hall, producer, screenwriter and director of the documentary "Killing Ed", which probed the financial practices of FETO-linked charter schools in the U.S.Security measures stand out at FETÖ’s Pennsylvania campSpeaking at the panel "July 15 Coup attempt: Two Years Later" organized by the Global Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., Hall said FETÖ threatens the U.S. mainly by bringing in unqualified employees from other countries, especially from Turkey, as well as through money laundering and forgery of documents, deceiving local and federal authorities.He noted that the terror group has also been financing major public relations firms for ages to convince American society that they are compatible with democratic, moderate American values. But a closer investigation reveals exactly the opposite."The Gülen movement has financed over a 19-year period a huge PR movement to provide a story about who they are. But when you look more closely, it is not a group that is democratic or that has the U.S.’ best interests in mind," Hall said.FETÖ terror ringleader sends instructions to group membersAt least 16 FETÖ suspects arrested across TurkeyEmphasizing that FETÖ's U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gülen needs to be extradited to Turkey, he added that the U.S. government should also pay attention to the immigration issues related to FETÖ-linked charter schools."The schools should be removed from receiving tax dollars," he said. FETÖ and Gülen orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016 which left 250 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.Ankara also accuses FETÖ of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary.Hall, in a previous panel, said he heard about the July 15 defeated coup from TV news while he was in the process of filming a documentary, and "it was no surprise" to him to learn that FETÖ was behind the coup attempt.Another speaker at the panel, Abraham Wagner, who is a lecturer in national security law at Columbia Law School, said the corruption in taxes and immigration that FETÖ commits in the U.S. needs to be examined thoroughly.He also said that FETÖ is not known in America in detail."There is not a great deal of awareness in America among the public or the media about what the Gülen movement is," Wagner said. "It is unfortunate that it hasn’t gotten the media coverage or official law enforcement coverage that it needs."Mary Addi, who formerly taught at a Gülen movement school in the U.S., also spoke at the panel.Addi said she first learned that her Turkish husband, who also taught at the school, was part of the movement when she realized he was giving 40 percent of his salary back to the movement."I said to my husband, 'Do you get that this is not legal? They are extorting money from you,'” she said, describing it as "illegal and money laundering".Stating that FETÖ attempted to force her husband to divorce her because she was investigating its corruption, Addi said she worked with her husband to gather evidence of wrongdoing at the schools and submitted it to the relevant authorities.However, she said she has been told that the biggest problem the agencies investigating the movement are facing is tracking the money. Addi also said she has been giving interviews to foreign media outlets while American media outlets turn a blind eye to the issue.“Where are our government officials? Why is our own country not doing anything about these schools? "There is not a doubt in my mind as to whether they are insidious, dangerous and terrorists."
US experts raise concern over FETÖ threat in America
More than half of workers in Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines - at least 137 million people - risk losing their jobs to automation in the next two decades, the United Nations' International Labour Organization (ILO) says.
The risk of slavery tainting supply chains will spiral as workers who lose their jobs due to increased robot manufacturing will be more vulnerable to workplace abuses as they jostle for fewer jobs at lower wages, said Alexandra Channer of Maplecroft.
"Displaced workers without the skills to adapt or the cushion of social security will have to compete for a diminishing supply of low-paid, low-skilled work in what will likely be an increasingly exploitative environment," she said.
One of 10 terrorists "neutralized" in Turkey’s eastern Bitlis province last month was Sefer Acar, who was responsible for the martyring of 15 Turkish soldiers in 1998, the Interior Ministry announced on Thursday.“Neutralized” is a term used by Turkish authorities to imply that the terrorists in question either surrendered or were killed or captured.Acar, also known as Welat Gever, was on Turkey’s terrorist wanted list, in the red category, the most wanted category.On June 28, gendarmerie forces conducted a counter-terror operation in the village of Kocyigit in the Bitlis province, where the PKK/KCK's so-called “Garzan province” head Acar was neutralized, said a ministry statement.Acar was the perpetrator of a PKK attack in northern Iraq against a gendarmerie helicopter which martyred 15 Turkish soldiers.On Acar’s person, security units found a Turkish bank note dated 1998 with a note saying "Money from helicopter pilot downed in Herko 11-27-1998." The terrorist had kept the “souvenir” of his deadly attack for 20 years.In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU -- has been responsible for the deaths of some 40,000 people, including women and children.Security forces 'neutralize' 5 terrorists in eastern Turkey
PKK terrorist on most wanted list killed in east Turkey
"Without concrete measures from governments to adapt and educate future generations to function alongside machines, it could be a race to the bottom for many workers," the head of human rights at Britain-based Maplecroft said in a statement.
Farming, forestry and fishing, manufacturing, construction, retail and hospitality are the sectors in Southeast Asia where workers are most likely to be replaced by robots, Maplecroft said in an annual report, with Vietnam the country at most risk.
Workers in the garment, textile and footwear industry - mostly women in countries such as Cambodia and Vietnam - face the biggest threat from automation in the region, Maplecroft said.
The five countries the report lists are already considered high-risk for modern slavery as labour abuses are rife, wages low and the workforce dependent on low-skilled jobs, the firm said, with automation set to make things worse.
"Automation has always posed a risk to low-skilled jobs, but governments and business can determine how it impacts on workers," said Cindy Berman of the Ethical Trading Initiative, a group of unions, firms and charities promoting workers' rights.
"Technology can be disrupting, but it can also be part of the solution by creating opportunities for better jobs," its head of slavery strategy told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.