Workers operate sewing machines at a factory in southern China. Asia Monitor Resource Centre wants to improve the lot of 'invisible victims of development'. Photograph: Siu Chiu/Reuters
Millions of Asian people are contracting fatal diseases at work but their suffering is ignored, unreported and uncompensated, according to a new report by a labour rights group.
Asia Monitor Resource Centre (AMRC) says poisoning in unhealthy workplaces is creating untold numbers of "invisible victims of development".
The group's report on health and safety in six countries – Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand – has been issued ahead of International Workers Mourning Day on Saturday.
The International Labour Organisation has estimated that 1.1 million people in Asia died due to their work in 2008.
But official figures rarely cover deaths of migrant workers and thus the true total is much higher, said AMRC executive director Sanjiv Pandita.
