More than 180 organisations call upon the major brands of ready-to-wear to cut their ties with suppliers in connection with the camps which are held of the Uyghurs.
The pressure on Beijing is more and more strong. As reported by International Mail, more than 180 organisations, established in 36 countries, call the major brands of ready-to-wear to cut their ties with suppliers in connection with the camps which are held of the Uighurs, the main ethnic group in Xinjiang, a vast region of the north-west of China.
“almost all of the industry of the ready-to-wear [global] benefits from the forced labour of the Uyghurs and turkic-speaking muslims” laments a coalition of groups in defense of human Rights in a press release picked up by The Guardian. China is no longer the biggest producer of cotton in the world, and 84% of its total production comes from Xinjiang, says the british newspaper. The cotton is then often sent to the factories of ready-to-wear from Bangladesh, Cambodia or Vietnam.
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Among the brands highlighted by the coalition include Gap, C & A, Adidas, Muji, Tommy Hilfiger, Lacoste and Calvin Klein. Interviewed by The Guardian, Chloe Cranston, of the organization Anti-Slavery International, believes that it is “very likely that all brands, mainstream or luxury, are related to what is happening to the people of Uyghur”.
A cotton garment, on five contains cotton or yarn product in the Xinjiang
even Before the publication of the statement, PVH, the group which owns Tommy Hilfiger or Calvin Klein, had announced to respond to this call by “ceasing all business relationship with the factories and the mills that produce clothing and fabric in Xinjiang and procure cotton from the region in the coming twelve months”, reports the New York Times. According to the daily american, a cotton garment out of five sold in the world contains cotton or yarn produced in Xinjiang.
The chinese authorities are accused of having, in the name of combating terrorism, established programmes of forced labour and internment on a large scale in Xinjiang. Between one and two million people would be affected, remember International Mail. Inmates are to much forced to work in fields or factories for very low salaries or no pay at all.
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The coalition of groups in defense of human Rights affirms that “the system of forced labour implemented in the region is the largest program of internment of ethnic minority and religious since the Second world War”. In front of the national Assembly, on Tuesday, the French minister of foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian pointed the “internment camps for Uighurs, the mass detentions, disappearances, forced labour, forced sterilizations”. He had also referred to “the monitoring of the population and, more generally, all the repressive system put in place in this region.” “Lies” according to Beijing.
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On march 2, a centre of reflection australian revealed in a detailed report of 56 pages that “factories are using the forced labour of the Uyghurs in the context of a transfer mechanism, overseen by the chinese State, which affect the production chains on a global scale”. Among the brands pinned were already big names in textiles, such as Adidas, Lacoste, Gap, Nike, Puma, Uniqlo, H&M, but also in electronics (Apple, Sony, Samsung, Microsoft, Nokia…), or automotive (BMW, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar…).
