ASIA Archives - Gethin Chamberlain

Human safaris may be banned, but still tourists flock to Andaman Islands 0

ASIA, INDIA, NEWS, WORLD
September 1, 2012

Eight months after the Observer revealed the shocking story of how tourists were paying to gawp at reclusive tribe, Gethin Chamberlain returns to find the practice still goes on “Jarawa!” The cry goes up from the front of the bus and, in an instant, the tourists are on their feet, craning their necks to see

‘He turned to the helicopter and sank to his knees, then I hit him with my rockets’0

NEWS, ASIA
April 29, 2007

US aircrews describe how, under new orders, they show no mercy to suspected Taliban fighters on the ground in Afghanistan Gethin Chamberlain, in Kandahar, for The Sunday Telegraph, 29 April 2007 Caught in the middle of the Helmand river, the fleeing Taliban were paddling their boat back to shore for dear life. Smoke from the

Her father wielded ‘the simple sword of truth’. But Alexandra Aitken prefers the spear of a Sikh warrior… and a bag of bananas 0

NEWS, ASIA
August 25, 2012

Gethin Chamberlain, in Anandpur Sahib, India, for The Mail on Sunday, 25 August 2012 With a spear clutched in one hand, a bag of bananas in the other and iPod headphones tucked beneath a white and purple turban, Alexandra Aitken cuts a striking figure as she strides along an Indian country road. The look – completed

Tea’s maids: the tea pickers sold into slavery 0

INVESTIGATIONS
March 2, 2014

GETHIN CHAMBERLAIN for The Observer Magazine Sunday 2 March 2014 A car, speeding through the crowded streets of Delhi. Inside, a phone is ringing. The voice on the line is that of a ghost, a girl who vanished into thin air three years ago. Somila was 16 when the traffickers lured her from the poverty of

Inside the Indian factory where workers churn out £200 handbags sported by Pippa Middleton for just 17p an hour 0

INVESTIGATIONS, ASIA
January 19, 2013

Gethin Chamberlain, in Chennai, for The Mail on Sunday, 19 January 2013 IT is marketed as the very best of British, a handbag that has become the season’s must-have accessory after capturing the heart of Pippa Middleton. But what Modalu London’s thousands of admirers may not realise is that their favourite brand has hired a

EXCLUSIVE: Doctors ‘used nine-year-olds as human guinea pigs’ for a new cervical cancer vaccine… and they suffered side-effects including nausea, dizziness and weight-loss 0

WORLD, ASIA
January 12, 2015

Gethin Chamberlain, in Indore, India, for MailOnline, 12 January 2015 Children as young as nine suffered side-effects after being used as unwitting human guinea pigs for a new multi-billion pound anti-cervical cancer drug, it has been claimed. The new anti-cancer drug has just been approved for use in the United States and is due to

Revealed: Disney’s £35 Ariel doll earns a Chinese worker 1p 0

ASIA, INVESTIGATIONS, WORLD
December 7, 2018

An undercover investigation exposes illegally long working hours and low wages for staff at factory producing toys for Disney in China.

Building rights 0

INDIA, ASIA
August 31, 2009

Gethin Chamberlain, in Kolkata, for The National, 31 August 2009 THE pregnancy came all too easily. Monica was 13, and the man in question was her overseer at the brick kiln where she worked about 40km north of the booming Indian mega-city of Kolkata. More than twice her age and married with two children of his

India prays for rain as water wars break out 0

INDIA, ASIA
July 12, 2009

The monsoon is late, the wells are running dry and in the teeming city of Bhopal, water supply is now a deadly issue Gethin Chamberlain, for The Observer, 12 July 2009 It was a little after 8pm when the water started flowing through the pipe running beneath the dirt streets of Bhopal’s Sanjay Nagar slum.

Death on five ton tiptoes 0

FEATURES, ASIA
April 20, 2012

Gethin Chamberlain, in North Bengal, India, for The National, Apr 20, 2012 The moment the elephant’s trunk wrapped itself around Fulmani Urao’s waist, she must have known it was all over. She did not even try to struggle. There was no point. It was about 1.30am when the huge, bad-tempered bull elephant smashed its way into

Last days of the tiger?0

MAGAZINES, ASIA
February 21, 2011

Gethin Chamberlain for the South China Morning Post , 21 February 2011 WHEN he found the bull the tiger had killed, Mangya Moghiya set to work quickly. The wily old poacher knew the tiger would be back soon, and he wished to stack the odds in his favour. He began digging a series of holes and

Russell Brand’s trendy tops made in Bangladesh 0

ASIA, INVESTIGATIONS, WORLD
June 6, 2015

Gethin Chamberlain for the Daily Mail with Lucy Osborne and Ian Drury, 5 June 2015 Millionaire comic sells £60 sweatshirts from workers earning just 25p an hour Comic claims sweatshirts are ‘screen printed and produced in the UK’ In fact label stitched into lining reveals they are made in Bangladesh Factory staff described working 11-hour shifts

Where a baby girl is a mother’s awful shame 0

INDIA, ASIA
October 4, 2009

Over the past 20 years in India, 10 million female babies have been aborted. The pressure to have sons is terrifying – mothers who bear daughters are beaten or cast aside by husbands and in-laws desperate to escape the financial burden of a girl’s dowry. Now mothers are being urged to ‘save the girl child’

Monsoon’s internal audits reveal suppliers used child labour and underpaid workers 0

ASIA, INDIA, INVESTIGATIONS, NEWS, WORLD
November 21, 2010

Monsoon, the fashion retailer, proclaims its fair trade values, but its internal audits reveal concern at suppliers’ failures to meet minimum ethical standards in India and China Gethin Chamberlain, in Delhi, for The Observer Monsoon, the fashion chain that pioneered ethical shopping, has used suppliers in India who employ child labour and pay workers below the

Hey Alexa: does Amazon use underpaid and exhausted workers to make its Echo and Kindle?0

ASIA, INVESTIGATIONS, WORLD
June 9, 2018

In the Chinese city of Hengyang, we find a fatigued, disposable workforce assembling gadgets for Amazon, owned by the world’s richest man. by Gethin Chamberlain in Hengyang, China, 9 Jun 2018 Five o’clock in the morning and the young woman’s eyelids are drooping. All night she has been removing spots of dust from Amazon smartspeakers with a toothbrush. Time

Scam-dog millionaires 0

INVESTIGATIONS
June 13, 2010

Crooks pocket Indian aid as UK faces £66bn cuts Exclusive: Gethin Chamberlain MILLIONS of pounds of taxpayers’ money sent to India to educate poor children is falling into the pockets of crooked officials in the country. A News of the World investigation has uncovered corruption on an incredible scale after our Government poured in £340MILLION

Two million slum children die every year as India booms 0

INDIA, ASIA
October 4, 2009

India’s growing status as an economic superpower is masking a failure to stem a shocking rate of infant deaths among its poorest people. Gethin Chamberlain in Delhi, for The Observer, 4 October 2009 Nearly two million children under five die every year in India – one every 15 seconds – the highest number anywhere in the world.

Landmine: ‘The blast left the soldier on his back, staring at the mess of his leg’0

Video, ASIA
December 24, 2006

Gethin Chamberlain, in Kandahar, Afghanistan, for The Sunday Telegraph, 24 December 2006. STRUGGLING TO sit up, Frederic Couture surveyed his torn trouser leg and the bloodied strips of flesh which were all that remained of his foot. A landmine had exploded, blowing the rest of it away. “I’m 21-years-old and I’ve lost my foot,” he cried.

The Red Brigade: the women of India fight back 0

MAGAZINES, ASIA
April 6, 2013

Gethin Chamberlain, in Lucknow, India, for The National, 6 April 2013 THE young women stride out along the dusty street that cuts through the Madiyav slum. Their bright red uniforms glow in the late afternoon sun and there is no mistaking their air of confidence. Since the gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student

Bonfire of Britain’s Foreign Aid Billions 0

INVESTIGATIONS, ASIA
April 12, 2015

Swanky new aid offices in India costing £442,000 are just one example of the disturbing way British taxpayers’ money is wasted Gethin Chamberlain for Mail on Sunday, 12 April 2015 Set inside the walls of the High Commission compound in the smartest part of New Delhi, Britain’s aid offices are an oasis of calm amid

Disney factory faces probe into sweatshop suicide claims 0

INVESTIGATIONS, ASIA
August 27, 2011

Gethin Chamberlain, for The Observer, 27 August 2011 DISNEY’S best-selling Cars toys are being made in a factory in China that uses child labour and forces staff to do three times the amount of overtime allowed by law, according to an investigation. One worker reportedly killed herself after being repeatedly shouted at by bosses. Others cited

“How could this happen in Britain?”0

NEWS, ASIA
January 1, 2012

Gethin Chamberlain, in Pune, for The Sunday Mirror, 1 January 2012 NEHAL Sonawane sits on the bed of the neat little middle class house in the Indian city of Pune, waiting anxiously for news from England of investigation into the racist murder of her little brother Anuj. Her husband Rakesh is talking urgently into the

Vedanta versus the villagers: the fight for the sacred mountain 0

ASIA, INDIA, NEWS, WORLD
October 12, 2009

Tribes say plans by UK-listed mining firm Vedanta to mine on holy land will destroy their way of life Gethin Chamberlain in Niyamgiri, India, for The Guardian, 12 October 2009 The ash spills out across the plain beneath the brooding bulk of Niyamgiri mountain, swamping the trees that once grew here, forming dirty grey-brown drifts around

Myanmar’s new era dogged by ghosts of the old regime 0

WORLD, ASIA
April 18, 2016

Aung San Suu Kyi’s election win saw the former political prisoner put in charge of Myanmar’s first civilian government since 1962 Gethin Chamberlain, for The Observer, 17 April 2016 “I want to be a soldier, to fight,” says 11-year-old Khin Soe Win, glancing round at the other children sitting in the gleaming new classroom. Another

Were Kate’s favourite dresses made in 6p an hour sweatshop?0

INVESTIGATIONS, ASIA
July 17, 2011

Bangladeshi workers claim they are slaves to make dresses for brand favoured by Kate and Pippa Middleton Gethin Chamberlain, for The Sunday People, 17 July 2011 THE harrowing human cost of clothes that workers claim are made for one of Kate Middleton’s favourite high street shops is today exposed by The People. In an investigation

The Slumdog Footman: The incredible journey that took a poor boy from a Calcutta orphanage to a starring role at Buckingham Palace announcing the birth of Prince George 0

NEWS, ASIA
July 27, 2013

Badar Azim, 25, came to the UK thanks to an orphanage scholarship He found himself taking a lead role in announcing Prince George’s birth His family of nine live in just two rooms back in India Gethin Chamberlain, for The Mail on Sunday, in Calcutta, 27 July 2013 He began life in a slum apartment

‘We want to work in Hollywood- but God still hasn’t fulfilled our dreams’0

MAGAZINES, ASIA
September 21, 2009

Gethin Chamberlain in Bombay for Grazia, 21 September 2009 IT is raining, the water dripping from roofs of tin and plastic into the pale grey ooze of the drain running down the narrow lane between the shanties that make up Bombay’s Garib Nagar slum. Rubina Ali, Slumdog Millionaire starlet and precocious 10-year-old, is skipping from

Burning Issue 0

INDIA, ASIA
June 27, 2010

Despite years of robust economic growth, famine, insurgency and greed have pushed millions of people in India to the brink of starvation, especially in Jharkhand where famished children are ‘cured’ by branding Gethin Chamberlain in Mirgitand, India, for the South China Morning Post, 27 June 2010 The poker is glowing red hot, flames from a

India targets the traffickers who sell children into slavery 0

IMAGES, INDIA, WORLD
August 5, 2012

Up to 200,000 children a year fall into the hands of slave traders in India, many sold by their poverty-stricken parents for as little as £11. Now a group of activists has set out to rescue them from a life in the sweatshops of Delhi Gethin Chamberlain in Katihar, India, for The Observer, 5 August

India prays for rain as water wars break out 0

NEWS, ASIA
July 12, 2009

The monsoon is late, the wells are running dry and in the teeming city of Bhopal, water supply is now a deadly issue. Gethin Chamberlain reports The Observer, 12 July 2009 It was a little after 8pm when the water started flowing through the pipe running beneath the dirt streets of Bhopal’s Sanjay Nagar slum. After days

Orangutans fight for survival as rainforest burns 0

IMAGES, ASIA
June 2, 2015

Palm oil plantations are destroying the Sumatran apes’ habitat, leaving just 200 of the animals struggling for existence Gethin Chamberlain for The Observer, 15 December 2013 Even in the first light of dawn in the Tripa swamp forest of Sumatra it is clear that something is terribly wrong. Where there should be lush foliage stretching away

Convert or die, Hindu lynch mobs tell fleeing Christians 0

INDIA, ASIA
October 19, 2008

As a fresh wave of sectarian violence is unleashed across the Indian state of Orissa, Gethin Chamberlain talks to homeless survivors in Kandhamal district who were forced to abandon their religion Gethin Chamberlain, for The Observer, 19 October 2008 HUNDREDS of Christians in the Indian state of Orissa have been forced to renounce their religion

Burning Bright 0

MAGAZINES, ASIA
October 27, 2008

Gethin Chamberlain, in Deulbari, Sundarbans, for The National, 27 October 2008 SWAPAN Haldar had no inkling the tiger was there until it pounced, clamping its jaws around his head and dragging him backwards into the thick mangrove forest. It was the last time anyone saw him alive. Haldar, 35, had set off the day before to fish

A nation adrift 0

FEATURES, ASIA
September 19, 2010

The National, 19 September 2010 The floods that continue to submerge swathes of Pakistan have marooned hundreds of thousands of people on small islands of high ground. Gethin Chamberlain accompanies a rescue mission in Sindh province. THERE is a small boy, standing up to his waist in the flood water, staring at the boats that have pulled

The human safari: the tribe that became a tourist attraction.0

WORLD, ASIA
January 7, 2012

Jarawa people at risk from disease, predatory sex and exploitation as tourist convoys crowd the road through their jungle Gethin Chamberlain, for The Observer, 7 January 2012 “Dance,” the policeman instructed. The girls in front of him, naked from the waist up, obeyed. A tourist’s camera panned round to another young woman, also naked and

Jordan’s perfume bottled by workers paid £2.05 per day 0

INVESTIGATIONS, ASIA
June 13, 2010

Gethin Chamberlain, in Mumbai, for The Observer, 13 June 2010 Workers at a factory in India have been paid just 26p an hour to make perfume bottles for England World Cup sponsor Umbro and the glamour model Katie Price, better known as Jordan. An Observer investigation found that the 7,000 employees at the factory in Gujarat

The grim truth of Chinese factories producing the West’s Christmas toys 0

INVESTIGATIONS, ASIA
December 6, 2016

Investigation exposes low wages, hazardous chemicals and overtime beyond legal limits Gethin Chamberlain for The Observer, 4 December 2016 Xiao Fang thinks she’s one of the luckier workers making Barbie dolls for the Christmas market at the Mattel toy factory in Chang’an. True, she says, she works 11-hour days, six days a week, and shares

That’s rich! Starbucks paying staff 25p an hour in new Indian cafes 0

INVESTIGATIONS, ASIA
November 10, 2012

Tax row coffee chain pays ‘poverty wages’ despite making £222 million profit in three months Gethin Chamberlain, in Mumbai, for The Sunday Mirror, 10 November 2012 TAX row coffee chain Starbucks is paying workers just 25p an hour at its newly-opened stores in India. The pittance falls far below the country’s official living wage and

Olympic brands caught up in abuse scandal 0

INVESTIGATIONS, ASIA
March 3, 2012

While Adidas, Nike and Puma make millions out of the Games, their employees are claiming exploitation Gethin Chamberlain, for The Observer, 3 March 2012 Workers producing sportswear for Olympic sponsors Adidas, Nike and Puma are beaten, verbally abused, underpaid and overworked in Bangladeshi sweatshops, a shocking investigation has discovered. Workers for all three companies had been

Orangutans fight for survival as thirst for palm oil devastates rainforests 0

ASIA, FEATURES, INVESTIGATIONS, WORLD
December 13, 2013

Five years on we’re still slumdogs who dream of being millionaires 0

FEATURES, ASIA
April 20, 2014

Gethin Chamberlain in Mumbai, for The Sun on Sunday, 20 April 2014 THEY are the slum kids who were going to set Hollywood alight – the stars of Oscars sensation Slumdog Millionaire, plucked from the gutter to become overnight stars. As the film became a global hit, Rubina Ali and Azhar Ismail were convinced a life

Love is a battlefield: fighting back against honour killings.0

FEATURES, ASIA
October 29, 2010

Gethin Chamberlain for The National, 29 October 2010 Aarti is stumbling across the fields, tears streaming down her face. Every now and again, she turns to look back over her shoulder, terrified that she is being followed. The man had shown her a gun, threatened her. She knew if they caught her that her life

Six-year-old girl says other children wouldn’t play with her after she lost her leg – but now she’s been given hope 0

Video, ASIA
June 11, 2016

Gethin Chamberlain, in Gaziantep, Turkey, for the Sunday Mirror, 11 June 2016 Four-year-old Shahd lay covered in dust when her mother found her. Her right leg was gone, taken off by the blast of a barrel bomb. Close by, her brother lay dead, his head smashed. A moment earlier they had been just another family

How poverty wages for tea pickers fuel India’s trade in child slavery 1

INVESTIGATIONS
October 20, 2013

Millions of Brits drink a cup of Assam tea each day, but it comes at a terrible price. Plantation workers on 12p an hour are easy prey for traffickers who lure away their daughters to India’s cities. Now pressure is growing on big tea brands to safeguard better pay Gethin Chamberlain in Assam, for The

Gap, Next and M&S in new sweatshop scandal 0

INVESTIGATIONS, ASIA
August 8, 2010

Indian workers are paid just 25p an hour and forced to work overtime in factories used by some of Britain’s best-known high street stores Gethin Chamberlain for The Observer, 8 August 2010 Some of the biggest names on the British high street are at the centre of a major sweatshop scandal. An Observer investigation has

Exclusive: Schoolchildren in China work overnight to produce Amazon Alexa devices 0

ASIA, INVESTIGATIONS, NEWS, WORLD
August 10, 2019

Leaked documents show children as young as 16 recruited by Amazon supplier Foxconn work gruelling and illegal hours

Assam’s modern slaves: the real price of a cup of Tetley tea 0

Video, ASIA
March 2, 2014

Poverty pay on tea estates in Assam fuels a modern slave trade ensnaring thousands of young girls. A Guardian/Observer investigation follows the slave route from an estate owned by a consortium, including the owners of the best-selling Tetley brand, through to the homes of Delhi’s booming middle classes, exposing the reality of the 21st-century slave

Andaman human safaris 0

Video, ASIA
January 7, 2012

In January 2012 India was scandalised when the Observer exposed the practice of human safaris in the Andaman Islands with the publication of this video, showing members of the threatened Jarawa tribe being coaxed into dancing in return for food. The video accompanied an investigation in The Observer into the running of human safaris on the

How high street clothes were made by children in Myanmar for 13p an hour 0

INVESTIGATIONS, ASIA
February 6, 2017

Children of 14 were working a six-day week Gethin Chamberlain for The Observer, 5 February 2017 Children as young as 14 have been employed to make clothes for some of the most popular names on the UK high street, according to a new report. New Look, Sports Direct’s Lonsdale brand and H&M have all used

How can Lidl sell jeans for £5.99? Easy … pay people 23p an hour to make them 0

COMMENT, ASIA
March 16, 2016

Gethin Chamberlain, for The Observer, 12 March 2016. Abracadabra! “Jean genie Lidl magics up £5.99 denims,” shouted the headline in a newspaper last weekend as it extolled the brilliance of the cut-price supermarket chain in once again undercutting its rivals. The German retailer, it explained, was continuing its assault on the traditional supermarket giants by targeting the

Child victims of the battle to end a bloody civil war 0

NEWS
May 25, 2009

Gethin Chamberlain, in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Special report for The Guardian, 25 May, 2009 Lying howling on a torn mattress, in a cot by a window overlooking the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, the wounded toddler was a pitiful sight. A female relative fretted, trying to calm the girl down as the medics worked around her.

The beating heart of Mumbai 0

MAGAZINES, ASIA
December 21, 2008

It is the biggest slum in Asia, home to more than a million people. It’s also the setting of Danny Boyle’s vibrant new film. But what’s it really like in Dharavi? Eight boys talk about life as slumdog millionaires Gethin Chamberlain, for The Observer Magazine, 21 December 2008 Amid a narrow warren of side streets

Apple’s Chinese workers treated ‘inhumanely, like machines’0

INVESTIGATIONS, ASIA
May 1, 2011

Gethin Chamberlain, for The Observer, 1 May 2011 An investigation into the conditions of Chinese workers has revealed the shocking human cost of producing the must-have Apple iPhones and iPads that are now ubiquitous in the west. The research, carried out by two NGOs, has revealed disturbing allegations of excessive working hours and draconian workplace

The five-year race to save India’s vanishing tigers 0

FEATURES, ASIA
March 7, 2010

With some conservationists claiming only 800 tigers still live in the wild, radical steps are needed if the species isn’t to disappear from India within five years by Gethin Chamberlain in Ranthambhore, India, for The Observer, 7 March 2010 The poachers perch on the rough platforms they have built in the trees about 15 feet

Workers who are making Katy Perry eyelashes for 8p a pair 0

INVESTIGATIONS, ASIA
October 20, 2013

Gethin Chamberlain for The Sun on Sunday, 20 October 2013 THEY are this year’s must-have fashion accessory, but an investigation by The Sun on Sunday has lifted the lid on the false eyelash business – where women in Indonesia work for as little as 20P A DAY. The lashes are manufactured for Western companies then

One family’s anguish amid India’s child abduction epidemic 0

WORLD, ASIA
July 5, 2011

Gethin Chamberlain for The National, 5 July 2011 It happens all of a sudden. One moment Anil Lakhotia is talking, the next his face is buried in his hands and his shoulders are shaking. Life goes on around him in a small cafe down a side street in the city across the river from Kolkata:

Investigative journalist | Photographer | Foreign correspondent

ASIA

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