{"id":1803,"date":"2020-04-25T09:16:10","date_gmt":"2020-04-25T09:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/?p=1803"},"modified":"2020-04-25T09:16:10","modified_gmt":"2020-04-25T09:16:10","slug":"uk-government-urged-to-ban-import-of-chinese-cotton-made-using-uighur-muslim-forced-labour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/?p=1803","title":{"rendered":"UK government urged to ban import of Chinese cotton \u2018made using Uighur Muslim forced labour’"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Named in submission of evidence to HMRC are some of UK’s best-known high street brands, including Ikea, H&M, Muji and Uniqlo<\/p>\n

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Adam Withnall<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The UK government has been urged to ban the import of cotton sourced from the Chinese province of\u00a0Xinjiang<\/a>, a region where\u00a0Uighur<\/a>\u00a0Muslims<\/a>\u00a0are being put to work in factories in conditions that amount to forced labour.<\/p>\n

A 60-page document submitted to HMRC by lawyers and a rights group on Wednesday amounts to \u201coverwhelming and credible evidence concerning the scale and gravity of the forced labour regime in Xinjiang\u201d, its authors said.<\/p>\n

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Named in the submission were some the UK\u2019s best-known brands, including H&M,\u00a0Ikea<\/a>,\u00a0Muji<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Uniqlo<\/a>, known to have used Xinjiang cotton in their products in the past year. Some have done so openly: Uniqlo boasted in an advertisement that cotton from the province, used in its shirts, was \u201cfamous for its superb quality\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, the UN believes Xinjiang to be the site of potential systemic human-rights abuses against Muslim minorities. Since 2017,\u00a0China<\/a>\u00a0is widely reported to have detained more than a million \u2013 some estimates put the figure at three million \u2013 Uighur Muslims in detention facilities that Beijing has described as vocational training centres.<\/p>\n

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The Chinese government insists the centres are voluntary, and a necessary step to quell a violent Islamist insurgency in the country\u2019s northwest. But rights groups say those who \u201cgraduate\u201d from such centres are being shifted into factories as part of a central government scheme, made to live in on-site dormitories under 24-hour supervision, and refused permission to return to their own homes.<\/p>\n

Cotton is big business for China. The country provides between a fifth and a quarter of all global supplies \u2013 and, of that, 84 per cent comes from Xinjiang, according to a report by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.<\/p>\n