Mr Mustapa Mustaman has spent more than two decades at a charcoal factory near Malaysia’s quiet town of Kota Tinggi in Johor, Malaysia.
The toll of the hard labour was evident on the 60-year-old’s body that was covered in perspiration and surrounded by fumes.
He spends eight hours a day turning wood into charcoal.
“This work is not easy,” the Indonesian said. “The labour is hard and (the environment is) hot. We work with heat, dust and smoke every day.”
Mr Mustapa is among the hundreds of thousands of foreign labourers who work in Malaysia’s “3D” sector, referring to jobs that are dirty, dangerous and difficult.
Many Malaysians are unwilling to take up such jobs due to the intense physical demands and low pay.
This weekend, In Pixels looks at the gruelling conditions these workers face as they toil at a charcoal factory in Malaysia, and finds out what keeps them going.
BAREFOOT, BARE-BODIED IN INTENSE HEAT
For seven days a week, Mr Mustapa starts the work day before sunrise, at around 6am.
He begins by stacking pieces of wood into a burning pit that is 3m deep and almost the size of a badminton court.
The wood is then covered in sawdust, which acts as the fuel to help burn the wood, and the timber is burned for two to three months before charcoal is produced.
Mr Mustapa and his co-workers manage about 10 burning pits at the factory and they produce around two tons of charcoal daily.
The workers walk around the scorched grounds near the burning pits either barefoot or with just a flimsy pair of rubber slippers.
“There was a time when my foot slipped into the burning pit and my slipper got stuck inside,” Mr Mustapa recounted. “Luckily, my foot didn’t burn.”
