Heatwaves and drought have devastated crops in rural Cambodia, forcing many farmers to abandon the fields and take work in the country’s burgeoning brick industry, where they become trapped in debt bondage. Photographer Thomas Cristofoletti visited Cambodia to explore the reality behind research done at Royal Holloway, University of London, that shows farmers struggling with debt are putting their families’ lives at risk to make ‘blood bricks’

• All photographs by Thomas Cristofoletti. Blood Bricks: Untold Stories of Modern Slavery and Climate Change from Cambodia is on at the Building Centre, London WC1E until 31 October