Chinese ‘minorities forced to work in cotton fields’
An investigation appears to show hundreds of thousands of Uighurs and other minority groups being used as forced labourers.
Retailers are under pressure to stop using cotton from Xinjiang in China after an investigation appeared to show hundreds of thousands of Uighurs and other minority groups being used as forced labourers.
The investigation by the BBC uncovered documents and satellite imagery that suggest large numbers of the persecuted Uighur Muslim minority are being forced by the Communist Party to pick cotton or work in textile factories linked to detention camps.
About a fifth of the world’s cotton supply comes from Xinjiang and it is widely used in the fashion trade.
The Chinese government denies the claims, insisting that the camps are “vocational training schools” and the factories are part of a massive and voluntary “poverty alleviation” scheme.
The documents, which are a mixture of online government policy papers and state news reports, show that in 2018 the districts of Aksu and Hotan sent 210,000 workers “via labour transfer” to pick cotton for a Chinese paramilitary organisation, the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. The satellite images appear to show hundreds or possibly thousands of workers wearing the same colour uniforms marching from their “re-education” camp to an adjacent textile factory.
Adrian Zenz, a senior fellow at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation in Washington, told the BBC: “Anyone who cares about ethical sourcing has to look at Xinjiang. We can’t do this any more.”
The Times
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