15 July 2010 Last updated at 07:02 ET

Philip Morris warned over Kazakh labour issues

Philip Morris International sells tobacco products in 160 countries

Cigarette maker Philip Morris International has acknowledged "serious issues" after a report said it bought tobacco from Kazakh farms that used forced and child labour.

The company said it had taken "immediate steps" to ban certain practises and to increase monitoring.

The report, by Human Rights Watch, said migrant workers had their passports seized and worked enforced overtime.

In some cases children as young as 10 were working, the report said.

Human Rights Watch said its report was based on interviews carried out in 2009 with 68 people.

It examined the plight of the tens of thousands of Kyrgyz workers who travel to Kazakhstan each year to work on tobacco farms.

The report found that employers failed to pay workers regularly and cheated them of earnings.

Some families were forced to work for eight or nine months before being paid a lump sum after the tobacco harvest.

Workers who wished to leave found in some cases that they could not - either because they would have to forfeit pay or because their employer withheld their travel documents.

Human Rights Watch said it had also documented 72 cases of children between the ages of 10 and 17 working on Kazakh tobacco farms in 2009.

"Many of these tobacco workers - adults and children alike - came to Kazakhstan and found themselves in virtual bondage," senior researcher Jane Buchanan said in a statement.

"Kazakhstan's government clearly needs to do much more to protect tobacco workers, but Philip Morris also has a key role to prevent abuses in its supply chain."

Philip Morris International said that the report raised "serious issues concerning child labour and conditions affecting migrant workers on tobacco farms in Kazakhstan".

It had taken immediate steps to address the areas of concern raised in the report, it said.

The company had strengthened obligations for farmers towards their workers and was implementing an external monitoring system, it said.

"No one should work in unsafe or unlawful conditions," its statement said.

Philip Morris International, based in Switzerland, sells tobacco products in 160 countries.