Dr. Nguyen Dinh Thang, executive director of Boat People SOS, in June 2008 signs an MoU with Esquel that signaled a positive outcome to that firm’s role in the labor-management dispute in Malaysia.

June 26, 2009: The Penang office of the Coalition to Abolish Modern-day Slavery in Asia (CAMSA) is continuing to pursue the Vietnamese labor export firm responsible for sending workers to Malaysia for jobs with a subcontractor that made clothes for the multinational firm Esquel.

You can read more about that huge case, in which Esquel ended up playing a positive role, by clicking here.

Many Vietnamese women are employed as domestics in Malaysia, sweeping and cleaning in private homes while isolated from support.

June 25, 2009: Jennifer Pham, the hard-toiling volunteer with the Coalition to Abolish Modern-day Slavery in Asia (CAMSA), filed this report from Penang:

“I interviewed more workers today. Counter-productive to the mission of anti-labor trafficking, but some of the workers feel it is easier working in Malaysia than farming in Vietnam, depending on the department they get put in.

One woman went in-depth into her life with her husband and how their marriage was good for 10 years. Then he started locking her up and beating her several times a day. She stayed with him for the kids, and her first thought was for her kids. Selfless…so selfless.

Some Vietnamese workers in Malaysia find the work easier than the grueling farm labor at home, according to Pham.

June 22, 2009: Here’s an update from Jennifer Pham, who has been generously volunteering her skills with the Penang office of the Coalition to Abolish Modern-day Slavery in Asia (CAMSA):

“I am done with my part of the human trafficking PowerPoint presentation. This will be designed to introduce others to CAMSA and human trafficking. I also started working on a grant proposal to get more funds for the office.

June 19, 2009: The Vietnamese guest workers at the Malaysian firm Spektra Alucast resorted to going on strike this week because of management’s failure to pay them back wages for months.

The Penang office of the Coalition to Abolish Modern-day Slavery in Asia (CAMSA) is consulting with the strikers and developing a response to the new situation. More details will be posted here as they become available.

June 18, 2009: Spektra Alucast, which only recently showed signs of good faith in its dealing with some 30 Vietnamese guest workers, has nevertheless failed to pay them their salaries in full.

This situation is of great concern to the Coalition to Abolish Modern-day Slavery in Asia (CAMSA), as is Spektra Alucast’s failure to follow through on repatriating those workers who wish to return to Vietnam.

June 17, 2009: Jennifer Pham, who’s generously volunteering her time with the Penang office of the Coalition to Abolish Modern-day Slavery in Asia (CAMSA), continues to update us about conditions “on the ground” in Malaysia.

“I continued interviewing workers today, and I’ve realized that many of the laborers are from rural areas as farmers. I had read that, but just to see case after case of workers coming from rural areas makes me realize how prevalent it is. Most have to take out loans just to pay the broker to become a guest worker. After all, their financial condition has to be pretty bad in the first place to want to become a guest worker.

June 16, 2009: Spektra Alucast is showing signs of good faith, according to Penang-based staff of the Coalition to Abolish Modern-day Slavery in Asia (CAMSA).

For the months of April and May, Spektra has provided the 30 workers at the center of a labor-management dispute with rice, vegetables, cooking oil, and salt. These basic amenities go a long way for the workers.

June 15, 2009: Jennifer Pham, who is generously volunteering her time in Penang office of the Coalition to Abolish Modern-day Slavery in Asia (CAMSA), has this news about her work.

“Two years ago, I helped out with a panel put on by an anti-sex-trafficking organization called Stop the Traffick at UC Berkeley. Through this event, I was exposed to the atrocities of the sex trafficking industry in the US and the many myths that came with it.

This pushed me to research sex trafficking, specifically in Vietnam, for a class project, and I learned how at risk of trafficking many Vietnamese women are, especially poor women in rural areas. In a situation with such scarce resources, women are forced to use their most precious commodity, themselves, to sell for a high price in order to change the course of their futures as well as piously take care of their parents. I think about women in those desperate types of situations, and I shamefully think about the times when I thought my life sucked because I had two finals and a paper due in the same week. My friend once said that if that’s all I have to worry about, then my life is really good. He’s right.

I am about to head to Vietnam for three months on a program called the Vietnamese Advanced Summer Institute to learn Vietnamese starting mid-June. Since I had a close friend working in Malaysia at the Penang office of CAMSA, I wanted to stop by to visit him and volunteer at the organization.

June 12, 2009: Boat People SOS is excited to announce that it has just received a grant for its work against human trafficking from the US State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (G/TIP).

The grant will be used to fund work of the Penang program of the Coalition Against Modern-day Slavery in Asia (CAMSA), of which BPSOS is founding member.

“We’re very grateful to G/TIP and proud to have been selected for this grant,” said Dr. Thang, the executive director of BPSOS. “This demonstrates the State Department’s recognition of the work that CAMSA is doing to prevent human trafficking.”

June 10, 2009: The Penang office of the Coalition to Abolish Modern-day Slavery (CAMSA) is proud to welcome a new volunteer, Jennifer Pham!

Pham, who arrived this week ready to work and free of influenza, will be meeting with past CAMSA clients and other Vietnamese workers and helping to lay the groundwork for a planned documentary.

“I’m excited to be working with Vietnamese workers in Penang,” said Pham, who credits her commitment to stopping human trafficking in part to an event she helped put on two years ago for the anti-sex-trafficking organization Stop the Traffick.

The Penang CAMSA team is thrilled to have a new colleague and looks forward to her help with the fight to stop the trafficking of Vietnamese workers to Malaysia.

Pham will be providing this blog with some boots-on-the-ground coverage of her experiences on the anti-trafficking front lines – so check here for her updates!