Apple s supplier in China accused of using forced Uyghur labourers
Lens Technology Co., a key supplier of touch screens for Apple, used thousands of Uyghur labourers from the predominantly Muslim region of Xinjiang in China, according to an investigation by Tech Transparency Project (TTP).
| 1 Jan 2021 4:32 AM GMT
SAN FRANCISCO: Lens Technology Co., a key supplier of touch screens for Apple, used thousands of Uyghur labourers from the predominantly Muslim region of Xinjiang in China, according to an investigation by Tech Transparency Project (TTP).
This is not the first time Apple s supply chain has been linked to alleged forced labour from the Xinjiang region, said the The Washington Post which first reported the TTP findings this week.
AP Photo/Ng Han Guan
Apple discovered that Suyin Electronics, one of its Chinese-based suppliers, relied on child labor on multiple occasions, but still took three years to fully cut ties, The Information reported on Thursday.
Ten former members of Apple s supplier responsibility team told The Information the company has refused or has been slow to stop doing business with suppliers that repeatedly violate its labor policies when doing so would hurt its profits.
Apple has faced intense criticism recently amid reports that it relies on forced Uyghur labor and protests over poor working conditions and wage theft by workers that make its products.
Apple’s longtime supplier accused of using forced labor in China
Sun Online Desk
1st January, 2021 08:35:57
Employees in the workshop of Lens Technology in 2015 in Liuyang, a city in China’s Hunan province. (AFP/Getty Images)
One of the oldest and most well-known iPhone suppliers has been accused of using forced Muslim labor in its factories, according to documents uncovered by a human rights group, adding new scrutiny to Apple’s human rights record in China.
The documents, discovered by the Tech Transparency Project and shared exclusively with The Washington Post, detail how thousands of Uighur workers from the predominantly Muslim region of Xinjiang were sent to work for Lens Technology. Lens also supplies Amazon and Tesla, according to its annual report.
An iPhone assembly worker in China/PHOTO: DanielFoster437 via Flickr (CC)
As reports increased this year that China has greatly expanded its facilities that detain and utilize Uighurs as slave labor, new evidence indicates a key supplier for Apple Inc. is using transferred workers from among the Muslim minority ethnic group.
In an article published Tuesday by the
Washington Post, the Tech Transparency Project revealed documents that indicate the Chinese government is transporting involuntary laborers from the region of Xinjiang – where Uighurs have been reportedly abused and undergo “re-education” to learn fealty to the communists – to a Lens Technology factory in Hunan, in central China.