NEW YORK, July 14 (UPI) -- Philip Morris International Inc. said it would change its policies after a report said it bought tobacco from Eurasian farms that used forced and child labor.
The world's largest publicly traded tobacco maker, which sells products in more than 160 countries, said Wednesday it had "taken immediate steps" to "address the problems of child labor and other abuses in labor markets related to our supply chain" after Human Rights Watch said child and forced labor was widespread on farms in Kazakhstan that supplied a Philip Morris Kazakhstan cigarette factory.
The factory makes cigarettes sold in former Soviet countries.
Tobacco farm managers confiscated migrant workers' passports, failed to pay regular wages and required laborers to work excessively long hours, said Human Rights Watch's 115-page report, based on interviews with 68 migrant workers during last fall's harvest.
Rights watch researchers documented 72 instances of children working in Kazakh tobacco fields and said children and adults alike lacked easy access to clean water, with laborers drinking from irrigation channels contaminated with pesticides, the report said.
"Philip Morris International is firmly opposed to child labor and all other labor abuses," the New York tobacco company said in a statement after receiving an advance copy of the report.
It said it was "grateful to Human Rights Watch for bringing these matters to our attention."
"No one should work in unsafe or unlawful conditions and we are committed to working to prevent child labor, forced labor and other labor abuses in the tobacco supply chain," said the owner of seven of the world's top 15 cigarette brands, including Marlboro, the world's largest selling cigarette brand.
Philip Morris International is separate from Philip Morris USA, the tobacco division of Altria Group Inc., known as Philip Morris Cos. until 2003.
