A variety of Amazon’s Chinese suppliers are linked to pressured Uyghur labor camps from China’s Xinjiang area, in accordance with a brand new report from the Tech Transparency Project. The group discovered that 5 of Amazon’s suppliers have been instantly accused by watchdog teams and journalists of counting on staff from China’s many “reeducation centers”, which it makes use of to detain Uyghur Muslims, Kazakhs and different ethnic minorities. The suppliers produce Amazon units and Amazon-branded merchandise, such because the Amazon Basics line of house items and tech equipment.
“The findings raise questions about Amazon’s exposure to China’s repression of minority Uyghurs in Xinjiang—and the extent to which the e-commerce giant is adequately vetting its supplier relationships,” wrote the authors of the report. “Amazon says that its suppliers ‘must not use forced labor’ and that it ‘does not tolerate suppliers that traffic workers or in any other way exploit workers by means of threat, force, coercion, abduction, or fraud.’ But its supplier list tells a different story.”
Two of the suppliers named within the report—Luxshare Precision Industry and AcBel Polytech—have been additionally utilized by Apple, in accordance with an investigation final yr from The Information. Both Amazon and Apple have denied working with pressured labor suppliers, regardless of proof that means in any other case.
“Amazon complies with the laws and regulations in all jurisdictions in which it operates, and expects suppliers to adhere to our Supply Chain Standards. We take allegations of human rights abuses seriously, including those related to the use or export of forced labor. Whenever we find or receive proof of forced labor, we take action,” Amazon spokesperson Erika Reynoso mentioned in an announcement to NBC.
The Australian Institute of Strategic Policies discovered that many main world manufacturers deployed pressured labor from China, together with Adidas, Gap, H&M, Microsoft, Nike, Sony, Victoria’s Secret and Zara. Amnesty International estimates that China is presently holding roughly 1 million prisoners in internment camps, the place they’re reportedly pressured to surrender their faith and topic to arduous labor in factories. The camps are largely within the Western China area of Xinjiang, and have been in place since 2017.
Both the US and the EU imposed sanctions on China in 2021, barring any imports from Xinjiang till companies can show that they not use pressured labor. But the report discovered that many Amazon-branded merchandise are nonetheless produced within the Xinjiang area. For instance, the report discovered that a few towel manufacturers nonetheless listed on Amazon promote utilizing “China-long staple cotton” from the Xinjiang area.
“Amazon’s continued use of companies with well-documented ties to forced labor in Xinjiang cast doubt on the tech giant’s stated intolerance of human rights abuses in its supply chain,” wrote the report’s authors.