How to ensure your clothes haven t been made using Uighur labour
Marks & Spencer has pledged to stop buying cotton from the devastated region - but will other brands join them?
18 February 2021 • 6:00am
A protest in Turkey against Chinese oppression of the Uighur community
Credit: AP
Earlier this month, an astounding BBC report was released, detailing the ways in which Uighur women have been systematically raped, sexually abused, and tortured in detention camps in Xinjiang, western China.
Or perhaps it wasn’t as astounding as all that. Horrific as the details are, we have known about the presence of these camps and the appalling treatment of the Uighurs – an ethnic-minority Muslim group who are also Chinese nationals – for years.
What the Latest Clampdown on Xinjiang Cotton Means for Fashion businessoffashion.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from businessoffashion.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Customs and Border Protection just picked a fight with the Chinese Communist Party
America should ramp up this powerful weapon against modern-day slavery
The federal government has a powerful tool at its disposal in the fight against human trafficking and forced labor. It’s one that should be used more.
It’s called a Withhold Release Order (WRO), and it allows U.S. Customs and Border Protection to halt the import of goods made by slaves. The government has had this power since 1930, but has only recently ramped up its use. In 2016, Congress closed a loophole in the law, and in the years since then CBP has issued more WROs than ever before. Between 1930 and 2019, CBP issued 51 WROs. Last year alone it issued 13 and detained almost 300 shipments worth $50 million.
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(Thomson Reuters Foundation) - A crackdown by the United States on cotton imports from China’s Xinjiang region is a “big red flag” that should spur retailers to ensure their supply chains are free of forced labor involving Uighur Muslims, according to a senior U.S. customs official.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said this week it would detain all imports of cotton and tomato products from Xinjiang and require companies to either prove the products were slavery-free or ship them elsewhere.
The United Nations estimates at least 1 million Uighurs and other Muslims have been detained in Xinjiang, and many are said to be put to work. China denies mistreatment and says the camps are vocational training centers needed to combat extremism.