He added that because Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps produces a lot of the agricultural products that are then exported from the region this increases concerns. The US placed sanctions on this company citing human rights abuses against the Uyghur. Chinese customs data shows exports from Xinjiang to New Zealand included a range of products such as cotton sheets and clothing, furniture, tomato paste, grapes and jam and marmalades. Globally there are significant concerns about China’s minority Uyghur population due to the arbitrary detention of up to a million people in Xinjiang. Detainees and prisoners are subjected to torture and other ill-treatment, cultural and political indoctrination, and forced labour, according to US non-profit Human Rights Watch. China denies the existence of forced labour in Xinjiang and says the arrangements are voluntary and part of a poverty alleviation programme, while the camps are part of a crackdown on terror.
A common practice was for a worker to be paid their contractual amount, but then forced to repay the difference between $8 per hour and minimum wage back to the employer, allowing the business to maintain legitimate records. Some workers reported working between 70 and 90 hours a week at $8 per hour. A migrant worker on a dairy farm said he worked 32 days straight without a day off, each day lasting up to 14 hours.
Exploitation left people devastated and desperate. Stringer recalls a person who had given up their hopes of residency and was returning to their home country. The person was just broken. They had absolutely given up and this and other interviews were very emotional, they ended in tears.