US Customs and Border Protection has seized a US$518,000 shipment of nitrile disposable gloves from Malaysian manufacturer Top Glove on suspicion they were made by forced labour.

The shipment in Cleveland was confiscated after an inspection revealed that the gloves were produced in Malaysia by a subsidiary of Top Glove, the CBP announced in a statement on its website.

“This seizure sends a strong message that CBP will not tolerate imports made by forced labor, which is a form of modern slavery that hurts vulnerable workers and threatens our economy,” said Diann Rodriguez, area port director of Cleveland. 

“CBP continues to facilitate the importation of legitimate PPE needed for the COVID-19 pandemic while ensuring that the PPE is authorised and safe for use.”

The agency had released findings in March showing the world’s biggest maker of medical gloves employed slave labour in its production process,  including debt bondage, excessive overtime, abusive working and living conditions, and retention of identity documents.

The agency banned the products made by two of its subsidiaries from US shores in July, but has since extended the prohibition to all Top Glove products made in Malaysia.

Top Glove said last month that it had made “significant improvement” in redressing issues of forced labour so as to have the CBP lift the ban on its exports.

Executive director Lim Cheong Guan said the company had resolved six of the 11 International Labour Organisation (IL) forced labour indicators brought up by the US agency. – May 5, 2021.