Lax legislation in Britain may fill shelves with forced labor

Both the EU and the US have put in place bans and strong laws to prevent goods made using forced labor from entering their markets. Conversely, a new report that finds the UK currently has no “enforceable legislation” to prevent forced labor goods from making it into the country onto the shelves. Thus, all the goods getting stopped in other locations can instead flood into the UK. 

Direct from the Uyghur Region to a store near you  

The Uyghur region of China has a well-earned global reputation for making and growing goods using forced labor. So much so, it’s assumed anything coming out of the region has forced labor somewhere in the supply chain. From tomatoes to solar panels, a wide range of goods are produced in the Uyghur Region. And due to a lack of data, it is extremely hard to know much about what goes on there. Especially when it comes to labor in manufacturing plants and farms. 

Evan Fowler of Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), told The Independent,

Not only has Beijing stopped publishing data that had previously been used by researchers to build a picture of what is happening, but the forced labor program has likely been expanded, 

That expansion is due to a new scheme by Beijing to try and obfuscate the use of forced Uyghur labor. Under the new labor scheme, tens of thousands of people from the Uyghur Region are loaded onto buses. They are then shipped out and forced to work in eastern factories. And tellingly, a new report from the UK parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR), underlined a stark fact. Unlike the US and the EU, cargo planes from the Uyghur Region are currently able to fly unhindered directly into the UK.  

“We are the weakest protected now in Europe” 

The Modern Slavery Act 2015 is the key framework that governs forced labor in the UK. Concerningly, the recent report sounds another alarm about the legislation’s effectiveness and enforceability. And the report claims, if nothing is done, UK markets are at risk. There would be nothing to stop forced labor goods flooding in. And shops in Britain will become a “dumping ground for goods that cannot be sold elsewhere.”   

According to current co-chair of (IPAC) Sir Iain Duncan Smith,

We are the weakest protected now in Europe, people like Ed Miliband [Energy and Net Zero Secretary] are desperate for cheaper product and they don’t want to have to have it slowed up or inaccessible (and) such is your desperation to get product in that you don’t care what else you’re going to attract. 

EU legislation takes an enhanced due diligence approach to stopping forced labor at the border. While US legislation operates under the assumption that all goods and parts made in the Uyghur Region were made with forced labor unless proven otherwise. The report calls out the ineffectiveness of the UK’s current “voluntary approach” when it comes to supply chain monitoring due diligence.  

Freedom United stands beside those calling on ministers in the UK to put in place the necessary due diligence laws and penalties to establish legal duty. We add our voices to those calling on the government to legislate who is responsible for preventing the import of tainted goods. It’s time for the UK to stop “turning a blind eye to slave labor.” As global supply chains remain at risk of exposure to Uyghur forced labor, lawmakers and companies must conduct robust due diligence. Join the movement today!