N/Koreans in ‘forced labour’ abroad, UN says

As many as 50,000 North Koreans have been sent abroad to work in conditions that amount to “forced labour”, a UN investigator has said.

Marzuki Darusman said workers earn very little, are underfed and are sometimes forced 20-hour days.

Employers pay “significantly higher amounts” directly to the North Korean government, he said in his report.

The majority of the workers are in China and Russia, mainly in the mining, textile and construction industries.

But Mr Darusman, the special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, also listed countries in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe,

He estimated that North Korea was earning $1.2bn$2.3bn from the foreign worker system every year.

John Magufuli is known as “The Bulldozer”