Virgil Grandfield, a former Canadian Red Cross delegate and later investigative journalist, alleged that contractors rebuilding Aceh, Indonesia, after the December 26, 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami trafficked more than 100,000 Javanese construction workers. The allegations described workers transported from distant regions, unpaid or underpaid labor, manipulation, and harsh working conditions on projects associated with the Canadian Red Cross, the United Nations, and other NGOs. Grandfield said he resigned from the Red Cross in 2008 after repeated efforts to have the complaints addressed.
Canadian media reported the allegations in March 2010. The Canadian Red Cross commissioned an Ernst & Young investigation, but the source says the report was not released publicly. In April 2010, leaked Canadian International Development Agency documents reportedly indicated that the Harper government knew in 2009 that child labor had been used in the Canadian tsunami reconstruction effort; CIDA was also reported to have known of the allegations for two years without requesting the report. The claims generated CBC and Radio-Canada documentaries and parliamentary controversy, while Grandfield’s later 2015 investigation, “The Cage,” examined the 2009 murder of a worker on a Red Cross reconstruction project. The source does not establish public legal findings against the named organizations.
