UK Sugar Firm Investigating Child Labor Claims

U.K. sugar firm Tate & Lyle on Wednesday said it was looking into recent allegations of child labor on two plantations in Koh Kong province it has been buying sugar from since 2010, but rebuked NGOs for not bringing the claims to its attention sooner.

The allegations of child labor most recently went public in a July 9 article in The Guardian newspaper.

Following threats by Tate & Lyle to sue the paper over a video clip accompanying the article purporting to show children working on the Thai-owned plantations, local NGOs put out a joint statement on Tuesday coming to the videographer’s defense and backing up The Guardian story. …

Eang Vuthy, executive director of Equitable Cambodia, one of the NGOs that came to The Guardian’s defense, said they first heard about children working on the plantations from local families last year. …

Mr. Vuthy said Tate & Lyle should be more concerned about doing a better job of monitoring its suppliers than chastising NGOs. “They should regularly monitor their suppliers,” he said. “You can’t expect them to always follow the policies.” …

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