Bombardier investigating reported links to Uighur forced labour in China
Posted March 4, 2020 3:03 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Bombardier Inc. says it is concerned about a new report that links it and other companies to the evident forced labour of Muslim minorities in China.
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute says factories that claim to supply products to global brands ranging from Apple to Nike are exploiting at least 80,0000 Uighur Muslims “under conditions that strongly suggest forced labour.”
The think tank draws on satellite imagery, media reports and open-source Chinese-language documents to uncover the connection between international corporations and the mass transfer of Uighur and other ethnic minorities from Xinjiang province to more than two-dozen plants across the country.
The institute says some of those workers were transferred to KTK Group, a Chinese company that makes rail equipment such as doors and seats and that counts Bombardier as a customer.
Bombardier says it contacted KTK after the report came out this week to confirm the manufacturer is adhering to Bombardier’s code of ethics, and is awaiting confirmation. The Montreal-based plane-and-train giant says in a statement it takes the allegations “very seriously” and notes that all its supplier contracts preclude the use of forced labour.
Human rights organizations have said that as many as one million ethnic Uighur Muslims in China’s western Xinjiang region have been rounded up and placed in camps. China says it is trying to re-educate and integrate the Uighurs to make them better contributors to Chinese society.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 4, 2020.
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The Canadian Press
