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Lured by the promise of $316 a month to work on road construction, Arjunan traveled last year from India to Malaysia, where his employer confiscated his passport and decided to pay him just $36. When Arjunan protested, his boss phoned India and told Arjunan’s wife that he would cut off her husband’s leg and hand. So she pawned jewelry to buy back the confiscated passport. But even after she paid out nearly $1,400, Arjunan’s boss still won’t give it back. Arjunan’s ordeal, documented by the Solidarity Center, is typical in Malaysia, which may be upgraded by the State Department for its efforts to fight human trafficking.

Regarding compensation to victims of workplace accidents, says Solidarity Center Country Dave Welsh, “In every situation I’ve been involved in, and I’ve been involved in a lot, it’s like pulling teeth making the government fulfill its obligation.”

Across Asia, millions of children toil for long hours, earning barely enough to live on, while sewing garments for fashion brands in the West. “Brands chase jurisdictions where there is extreme poverty, the rule of law is weak and it is easy for them to skirt labor laws,” says David Welsh of the Solidarity Center.

Solidarity Center Cambodia Country Director David Welsh writes: “Given the global nature of the garment industry, and of its shortcomings, improving workers’ lot calls for a global solution. The most efficient approach is to increase the costs to the big brands themselves of tolerating poor working conditions… [t]he big brands are ultimately responsible for the basic welfare of all the workers who toil for their bottom line.”

In the garment industry, the average union leader is just 26 years old with an eighth grade education and likely migrated to the city from a village. “The learning curve is steep,” said Alonzo Suson, program director of Solidarity Center, an affiliate of the AFL-CIO, which is training union leaders in Bangladesh.

Garment factory conditions have not improved. Manufacturers continue to invest where there is “no rule of law but extreme poverty and an investor-friendly government,” explains labor lawyer David Welsh, who works for the U.S. NGO Solidarity Center in Phnom Penh.

To mitigate the outbreak’s ripple effects, Solidarity Center is currently providing financial assistance to infected workers and for families of deceased workers.