Forced Labor Is the Backbone of the World’s Electronics Industry
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia—Malaysia bills itself as “heaven for foreign companies.” Since the 1970s, the Southeast Asian nation has drawn 5,000 foreign firms from more than 40 countries to set up facilities in parts of the country specially set aside for business development. The electronics industry—the country’s largest manufacturing sector, which makes everything from semiconductors to TVs to computer keyboards—accounts for over 36 percent of the country’s exports and a quarter of its employment, according to the country’s manufacturing-development agency. United States electronics companies have invested billions in their Malaysian operations to date.
The results are plain. In Kuala Lumpur cranes stretch outward among the gleaming towers in a perpetual construction boom powered by foreign investment. The streets are spotless and well policed, the water is clean, and the politics are relatively stable. Consumers around the world benefit from products like mobile devices, circuit boards, and LED screens.
At the heart of this economic success are migrant workers. From Bangladesh, Nepal, the Philippines, Indonesia, and India, they arrive at Kuala Lumpur International Airport by the scoreful, papers in hand, hoping for a better life. Estimates of the number of foreign workers in Malaysia vary widely, from the government’s count of almost 1.8 million to perhaps twice as many, which would amount to a quarter of the country’s workforce. Migrant-worker advocates estimate one-third of those workers are undocumented.
Many foreign workers believe “Malaysia is the land of milk and honey,” said Joseph Paul Maliamauv, of Tenaganita, a workers’-rights
