Uyghur workers at this factory are not allowed to exercise their free will to leave. The local police say the roll call is to ensure no one is missing. When finished for the day, often working more hours than their Han co-workers, the Uyghur workers are escorted back to their dormitories by provincial police officers from Xinjiang – not Fujian. These dormitories are surrounded by an iron gate and security cameras. Uyghur workers are made to live in separate dormitories from Han workers. However, these abuses are not just limited to Xinjiang.īeyond Xinjiang, in the coastal Chinese province of Fujian, Uyghur workers at a factory in Quanzhou face similar abuses. When not working, the Uyghur workers must learn Mandarin and undergo ideological indoctrination. If family communication and visits are allowed, they are heavily monitored or cut short. They receive little pay, are not allowed to leave, and have limited or no communication with family members. In one internment camp in Kashgar, Xinjiang, Uyghur detainees work as forced laborers to produce textiles. Uyghurs detained in camps and forced to labor in factories must endure dreadful conditions. Along with other mostly Muslim minorities in China, Uyghurs confront abuse and discrimination in places like Xinjiang and elsewhere in the country. The People's Republic of China officially recognizes 55 ethnic groups in addition to the Han majority. With such severe and well-documented, widespread abuses, it is important that the world remains vigilant with respect to labor and goods linked to Xinjiang, including reasonable measures to guard against complicity in these violations. Companies with supply chains that link to China, including, but not limited to, Xinjiang, should conduct due diligence to ensure that suppliers are not engaging in forced labor. This business advisory, as well as the TVPRA List and ILAB's Comply Chain due diligence tool for businesses, are practical guides for raising awareness and addressing this issue. Departments of State, Treasury, Commerce, and Homeland Security released an advisory for businesses with potential ties to Xinjiang. Given the vast state-sponsored structure in place and the control of information, it is likely that more goods also are produced with forced labor in China. The Department of Labor's (DOL) research utilized published victims' testimonies, and media and think tank reports, to determine the various industries implicated in this system of forced labor.
Given the vast surveillance state in Xinjiang and the threat of detention, individuals have little choice but to face the difficult situations present in these work assignments. (2) Once at a work placement, workers are usually subjected to constant surveillance and isolation. (2) These practices exacerbate a demand for members of Muslim ethnic minority groups that the government wants placed in work assignments where they can be controlled and watched, as well as receive Mandarin Chinese training and undergo political indoctrination. (6) Moreover, the government gives subsidies to companies moving to Xinjiang or employing Muslim minority workers. (5 3) Other minorities may be forced to work under the guise of "poverty alleviation" without having been detained. (5) While previous research has focused on goods and products produced in Xinjiang, recent external reports indicate that Uyghurs also have been transported to work in other provinces in China, increasing the number of goods potentially made with forced labor and broadening the risk of forced labor in supply chains. The production of these goods through forced labor takes place primarily in Xinjiang. In 2021, ILAB added an additional good, Polysilicon, produced by forced labor by Muslim minorities in China. These goods include gloves, hair products, textiles, thread/yarn, and tomato products. In 2020, the Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) added five goods produced by forced labor by Muslim minorities in China to the 2020 edition of the TVPRA List. (3 4) China has been included on the List of Goods Produced by Child Labor of Forced Labor (TVPRA List) since 2009. (2) Many more rural poor workers also may experience coercion without detention. (1) It is estimated that 100,000 Uyghurs and other ethnic minority ex-detainees in China may be working in conditions of forced labor following detention in re-education camps. The People's Republic of China has arbitrarily detained more than one million Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim minorities in China's far western Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
0 kommentar(er)
