Undercover Asia Black Markets and Slave Trades

What does it mean to fight an impossible battle in a city full of violence fear and uncertainty Undercover Asia examines the Hong Kong protests through the lens of those caught in the middle the police force once Asias finest now the most hated in Hong Kong How does the prolonged violence and harassment affect them and their families

Indonesia is choking on waste Each minute one ton of plastic is dumped into its waters making the country one of the worst plastic polluters in the world Its a problem aggravated by a shoddy waste management system and pushed to the brink when in 2018 a decision by China sent thousands of tons of unwanted plastic recyclables into Indonesias ports

In her quest to be super white 27yearold Lavin Galicha spends 30 percent of her salary on skinlightening products like soaps and lotions But she wants to whiten fast and resorts to an injectable drug meant for cancer patients glutathione Health authorities do not approve glutathione injectables for use as a skin lightener yet Lavin has been administering it on herself three times a week

In November 2019 Delhi faced one of its worst air pollution crises Planes were diverted schools shut down and authorities declared a public health emergency Indias apex court holds the governments of Delhi and its neighboring states responsible and asks them to devise a plan to clean up Delhis air Can Delhi shake off the dubious honor of being the most polluted capital in the world

Every minute in South Korea the debt owed by households and selfemployed people rises by 129 thousand US dollars Every 12 minutes a Korean is declared bankrupt Ordinary households now owe some 18 times their disposable income Undercover Asia explores the deeper reasons behind South Koreas household debt crisis and whether this debt spiral can be stopped in time

Revenge porn voyeur porn leaked intimate images and digitally altered content for sexual gratification represent nonconsensual pornography a new type of porn that is rearing its head fast in Singapore At the start of the year nonconsensual pornography is criminalized in Singapore The penalties have also become harsher Its a timely change but is it enough to stop brazen perpetrators

In the last decade the Philippines won nine international beauty crowns which triggered a surge in pageants and pageant hopefuls But as more and more vie for attention in an increasingly crowded space these pageants have become fertile hunting grounds for sexual predators Undercover Asia strips away the glitz and glamour to expose how pageants enable exploitation to fester

Counterfeiting syndicates are no longer just faking handbags and luxury items They are now gunning for everyday products you use and consume from health supplements to cosmetics fever pills to hard liquor Undercover Asia heads to Malaysia to investigate a spike in reports of these counterfeit products in the market

In March 2019 a river in an industrial town in Johor Malaysia was poisoned An illegal dumping of almost three tons of toxic waste by a river bank caused the contamination of the Kim Kim river in Pasir Gudang More than 4000 people were hospitalized and required treatment due to the inhalation of toxic fumes Who should be held responsible

For decades thousands of vulnerable migrants have been enslaved onboard untraceable Thai fishing boats lingering far out in international waters These men are cheated into dangerous unpaid labor then beaten starved and worked around the clock Those who manage to escape find themselves trapped on remote Indonesian islands with no way of getting home