The 2011 Human Rights Watch report exposed the fact that cashews produced in Vietnam, a major importer, were essentially the product of forced labor from detainees in so-called drug treatment centers. The "patients" in these centers spoke of being beaten, given electrical shocks, locked in "punishment rooms," charged for their room and board, and made to shell at least 5 kilograms of cashews per day (that's 4,800 nuts). Not only was this work beyond monotonous, but it was also extremely uncomfortable and irritating, not only to the skin, but also to the lungs. Gloves and masks were seldom available, and when they were, the workers would be made to purchase them with their own funds.
Quartz says that Vietnam is no longer using drug treatment centers as cashew processing plants and also reports that that country has been able to mechanize the cashew processing process to a certain extent, which cuts down on the number of humans suffering from dermatological and respiratory damage. Still, mechanization is very expensive, so most cashew growers still rely primarily on manual labor, and cashew workers in both Vietnam and India (another major cashew producer) have also been subject to various rights violations including sexual abuse and child labor.
