Xinjiang Mill's "Secret" Deal Proves Forced Labor

Working Uyghur adults may not be the only population that Xinjiang authorities are forcing into factories as part of a broader campaign of cultural and religious persecution against China’s ethnic minorities, a new report suggests.

Photo Insert: Major brands and retailers have taken pains to distance themselves from Xinjiang, and from the use of Xinjiang cotton, which makes up 90% of China’s total output of the fiber.

Teenage girls could also have become targets in at least one garment facility, Jasmin Malik Chua reported for Sourcing Journal.

The Uyghur girls, aged between 16 and 18, are being “locked up” at Wanhe Garment Co. in the southwestern Maralbeshi county, where they’re compelled to toil 14 hours a day, seven days a week under a “secret agreement” with a local high school, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported over the weekend, citing sources, including a village chief and the factory’s security head, who spoke under the condition of anonymity to avoid reprisals.

The teenagers, who were reportedly recruited from Yarkant 2nd Vocational High School, join roughly a dozen women in their 30s and 40s and some men, most of them also Uyghurs, at the facility, where they’re said to sleep in dormitories on the compound and are prevented from leaving.

They allegedly labor for 300 to 400 yuan ($42 to $56) a month under the withering gaze of a middle-aged Uyghur woman, referred to by workers as “Teacher,” who lashes out at them with verbal and physical abuse when they step out of line.

“The ‘teacher’ is known to have a very bad temper,” the village official, who was responsible for persuading parents to part with their daughters, told RFA. “She assaults the workers using a bat. The workers live in fear of her; no one dares to escape.”

Forced Uyghur labor has come under increasing scrutiny, particularly in the US, where the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which went into effect a year ago, bars the entry of goods made in whole or in part in Xinjiang on the rebuttable presumption that they are the product of forced labor.

Major brands and retailers have taken pains to distance themselves from Xinjiang, and from the use of Xinjiang cotton, which makes up 90% of China’s total output of the fiber.

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