Human Rights Watch (HRW) has undertaken a year-long investigation into forced labor practices in Xinjiang, a region in northwestern China. The findings reveal a disturbing trend where Chinese government labor transfer initiatives compel Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims to leave their homes and work in factories and warehouses. The products and materials associated with forced labor, ranging from aluminum used in automobiles to polysilicon found in solar panels, infiltrate global supply chains with alarming ease, evading detection.
The complexities inherent in this investigation underscore the necessity for stringent measures in a proposed European Union law aimed at banning imports and exports tied to forced labor. HRW emphasizes the need for specific provisions tailored to address state-imposed forced labor.
The confluence of government-mandated forced labor and broader state repression and surveillance in Xinjiang poses significant obstacles to accessing the region and conducting safe worker interviews. HRW investigators resorted to combing through thousands of webpages over several months to compile evidence of corporate involvement in labor transfers. However, the escalating censorship imposed by Chinese authorities is impeding this research effort.
The European Parliament’s draft legislation seeks to empower the European Commission to identify high-risk economic sectors in specific regions, such as aluminum sourced from Xinjiang, where state-imposed forced labor is prevalent. Companies importing products from these sectors and regions into the EU would be obligated to prove that forced labor was not involved in their production.
In contrast, EU governments have thus far resisted adopting the European Parliament’s robust stance, opting instead for vague references to state-imposed forced labor in their own version of the law. Their proposal targets individual products for investigation rather than classifying broader product categories from Xinjiang or other regions as high-risk for forced labor. Critics argue that this approach severely undermines the law’s efficacy, given the extensive array of products manufactured under state-imposed forced labor conditions and the challenges associated with sourcing information from Xinjiang.
In a joint effort, thirty-three civil society organizations and trade unions, including HRW, penned a letter to EU governments on February 5, urging them to embrace measures aimed at addressing state-imposed forced labor and advocating for key amendments to the legislation.
The onus now falls on European governments to champion the passage of a robust forced labor law that effectively tackles the scourge of state-imposed forced labor.