Investigations

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

    Tea’s maids: the tea pickers sold into slavery0

    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

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

    Workers who are making Katy Perry eyelashes for 8p a pair0

    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

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

    Inside the Indian factory where workers churn out £200 handbags sported by Pippa Middleton for just 17p an hour0

    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

  • ‘They’re killing us’: world’s most endangered tribe cries for help

    ‘They’re killing us’: world’s most endangered tribe cries for help0

    Logging companies keen to exploit Brazil’s rainforest have been accused by human rights organisations of using gunmen to wipe out the Awá, a tribe of just 355. Survival International, with backing from Colin Firth, is campaigning to stop what a judge referred to as ‘genocide’ Gethin Chamberlain, for The Observer, 22 April 2012 Trundling along

  • Olympic brands caught up in abuse scandal

    Olympic brands caught up in abuse scandal0

    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

  • Disney factory faces probe into sweatshop suicide claims

    Disney factory faces probe into sweatshop suicide claims0

    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

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

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

    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

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

    Monsoon’s internal audits reveal suppliers used child labour and underpaid workers0

    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

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

    Gap, Next and M&S in new sweatshop scandal0

    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

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

    Jordan’s perfume bottled by workers paid £2.05 per day0

    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

Investigations

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

    That’s rich! Starbucks paying staff 25p an hour in new Indian cafes0

    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

  • The expensive ‘Italian’ shoes made for a pittance in east European sweatshops

    The expensive ‘Italian’ shoes made for a pittance in east European sweatshops0

    A troubling study claims that workers producing UK high street brands are enduring low pay and poor conditions Gethin Chamberlain for The Observer, 21 August 2016 Campaigners claim millions of shoppers are being led to believe the expensive shoes they buy in high-street stores are made in Germany and Italy – when many are actually

  • Horrifying truth of the brutal life of free range hens laid bare

    Horrifying truth of the brutal life of free range hens laid bare0

    Up to 16,000 hens are crammed onto shelves in sheds with the end of their beaks cut off and male chicks gassed at just a DAY old Gethin Chamberlain, for the Sunday Mirror, 27 March 2016 Thousands of hens are crammed on to shelves, clambering over each other, hardly ever seeing daylight and with their beak ends

  • Hell for leather: how low paid workers made Theresa May’s trousers

    Hell for leather: how low paid workers made Theresa May’s trousers0

    Gethin Chamberlain, for the Sunday Mirror, 18 December 2016 Theresa May’s £995 leather trousers are made in a Turkish factory by workers paid as little as £1.49 an hour. The Prime Minister’s luxury Amanda Wakeley desert pants last week triggered a spat between No10 and former Tory Education Secretary Nicky Morgan. Ms Morgan was barred

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

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

    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

  • Disney factory faces probe into sweatshop suicide claims

    Disney factory faces probe into sweatshop suicide claims0

    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

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

    Monsoon’s internal audits reveal suppliers used child labour and underpaid workers0

    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

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

    Gap, Next and M&S in new sweatshop scandal0

    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

  • Scam-dog millionaires

    Scam-dog millionaires0

    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

  • Russell Brand’s trendy tops made in Bangladesh

    Russell Brand’s trendy tops made in Bangladesh0

    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

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

    Workers who are making Katy Perry eyelashes for 8p a pair0

    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

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

    Orangutans fight for survival as thirst for palm oil devastates rainforests0

    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

  • Bonfire of Britain’s Foreign Aid Billions

    Bonfire of Britain’s Foreign Aid Billions0

    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

  • 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

    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-loss0

    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

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

    How high street clothes were made by children in Myanmar for 13p an hour0

    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

  • Olympic brands caught up in abuse scandal

    Olympic brands caught up in abuse scandal0

    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

  • EXCLUSIVE: Revealed, how American tyre giant Firestone forces families of dead Ebola victims to leave their homes on Liberian plantation

    EXCLUSIVE: Revealed, how American tyre giant Firestone forces families of dead Ebola victims to leave their homes on Liberian plantation0

    Gethin Chamberlain, in Monrovia, for MailOnline, 21 November 2014 Tyre giant Firestone has ordered the children of workers who died from Ebola to leave their homes on its plantation in Liberia. The company – part of the Bridgestone group which last week announced sales for the first nine months of the year totalling £14.5 billion

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

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

    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

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