E-Commerce giant Amazon has been found to be employing suppliers in China that have been linked with forced labour, a report from the Tech Transparency Project, a research group owned by a non-profit watchdog organisation named Campaign for Accountability. The report, first reported on by NBC News, says that Amazon has continued to work with these suppliers despite evidence of its association with Uyghur labor camps.
China’s Uyghur Muslim population has, over the years, been subjected to multiple human rights abuses in China, including internment camps, mass sterilisation, forced labour, and more. The report from TTP notes that CHina uses “labor transfors" to transport Uyghurs from the Xinjian region to factories across the country, forcing them into labor programs that are “often coercive and connected to a network of mass internment and reeducation camps."
The report has pointed at five companies on Amazon’s supplier list that have been publicly accused of “directly or indirectly" being connected to forced labour. These suppliers, as the report notes, are responsible for making Amazon’s in-house products like the Amazon Echo, Fire TV Stick, Kindle, and a wide range of affordable products sold as part of its Amazon Basics line and more. The report notes that three suppliers – Luxshare Precision Industry, AcBel PolyTech, and Lens Technology have reportedly used forced labour themselves. The other two, GoerTek and Hefei BOE Optoelectronics are, on the other hand, indirectly involved and allegedly utilise suppliers that have been accused of using forced labour.
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Previous reports have also implicated these companies in the past like LuxShare and Lens Technology were both linked to forced labour in major reports from The Information and The Washington Post. These reports however, talked about Apple’s association with these suppliers.
Amazon has been found to be working with these suppliers despite the company’s supply chain standards specifically ruling out forced labour. “Amazon suppliers must not use forced labor — slave, prison, indentured, bonded, or otherwise. All work must be voluntary, and workers must be free to leave work and terminate their employment or other work status with reasonable notice," the supply chain standards read.
Now, Amazon is not the only company that has been found to be working with suppliers reportedly engaged in forced labour. Apple has also faced criticism over working with similar suppliers and Tesla was condemned for opening a showroom in the Xinjiang region earlier this year and has been working with Lens Technology since December 2020.
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