The British newspaper The Independent says North Korean workers in Mongolia are being exploited. The paper published the results of an investigation into the matter on Friday.

“Sent in their hundreds, under an agreement between Mongolia and the Democratic People”s Republic of Korea (DPRK),” the report says, “the North Korean workers take jobs on construction sites and in factories across this Central Asian state, where they are closely monitored by overseers from their homeland.”

The report goes on to say the North Korean workers’ salaries are transferred directly to an account controlled by the North Korean embassy in Ulaanbaatar. In effect, the workers’ salaries are helping to prop up the totalitarian regime in Pyongyang.

The report also notes that many of the goods manufactured by the North Korean workers, including cashmere sweaters, end up in stores in the West, including London, meaning Western consumers are unwittingly supporting the regime as well.