Covid Meets Slavery in Southeast Asia

The less-rich exploit the even less-rich

Slavery, debt slavery, and bonded labor have long been a curse of much of Southeast Asia, in the pre-colonial, colonial, and post-independence eras. And so it is today as the richest countries make themselves ever richer by treating persons from less fortunate neighbors as cheap, disposable, rights-less labor, often additionally constrained by debt, sei…