Forced labour behind Chinese facemasks in Lithuania – investigation
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China / AP
Personal protective equipment made by the repressed Uighur Muslim minority in China has made its way into Lithuania. OCCRP, Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, investigates.
Medical masks and protective equipment made by Uighur labourers in China are being sold across Europe by at least two major distributors, and have been bought by governments and health bodies in at least five countries, an investigation by OCCRP and partners has found.
The workers are ethnic Uighurs from the western Chinese region of Xinjiang who have been sent to factories in other parts of the country under a controversial “labour transfer” programme that experts say is coercive and prone to abuses.