A U.S. government report on international child and forced labor was released Wednesday (Sept. 30), highlighting labor abuses in China and growing concerns about the treatment of Uighur Muslims.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) released a list of 17 Chinese-made products, including gloves and Christmas decorations, that are believed to have been produced by children or forced laborers, with five new products added this year related to forced labor targeting minorities such as the Uighurs in Xinjiang. The Labor Department publishes such a list every two years.
U.S. Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia said in a conference call with the media Wednesday that “China produces more goods with forced labor than any other country,” the Labor Department said in a statement.
In a statement, the Labor Department said, “The release of this list of forced labor products is part of the U.S. government’s broader effort to address the issue of forced labor in China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, which is home to more than 1 million Uighurs. More than 1 million Uighurs and other ethnic and religious minorities are detained in Xinjiang. It is estimated that at least 100,000 to hundreds of thousands of Uighurs and other ethnic and religious minorities may be working under forced labor conditions in China after being detained in Chinese Communist Party re-education camps.”
“Today’s list shows the troubling role that China – the world’s second largest economy – plays in supporting these exploitative practices,” said Labor Secretary Scalia in a statement.
The Labor Department also mentioned that the large number of goods entering the list of countries can sometimes be a sign of transparency on the part of policymakers on this issue.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Forced Uyghur Labor Disclosure Act on Wednesday (Sept. 30), and on Sept. 22, the House passed the Forced Uyghur Labor Prevention Act by an overwhelming vote of 406 to 3.
Human rights activists have warned that the focus on the Xinjiang region is too narrow. Earlier this year, an Australian think tank said in a report that tens of thousands of Uighurs have been moved to work in factories across China.
The U.S. Department of Labor said in the report that the relocation of Uighurs to other locations amplified the risk of forced labor in the supply chain.
The list published by the Labor Department includes 155 commodities from 77 countries, including about 24 commodities that have been added since the 2018 report was released, such as Ethiopian khat used as a stimulant and fish caught by Taiwan’s ocean-going fleet.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has indicated that through fiscal year 2020, they have issued 13 orders preventing goods produced using forced labor from entering the United States.
The United Nations International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates that approximately 25 million people worldwide are victims of forced labor.
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