STOCKHOLM - Furniture giant Ikea on Thursday defended its procedures to verify suppliers following an investigation by media outlet Disclose showed links between several of its former suppliers in Belarus and forced prison labour.

The Sweden-based company, which cut ties with its Belarusian suppliers in March following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, admitted it could not completely rule out the links to prison labour.

“There is, unfortunately, no system in the world that’s so strong that it can guarantee zero risk of misconduct,” the company told AFP.

Ikea said it does “not accept any forced, bonded, and prison labour” and that suppliers must comply with standards, including International Labour Organisation conventions.

“To verify that Ikea suppliers are complying with these requirements, we have a well-established process,” the company said, adding that it included assessments at suppliers, compliance verification and follow-ups on action plans for “all non-conformities”.

According to Disclose’s investigation, several Belarusian companies that were until recently on Ikea’s list of suppliers have collaborated with a total of at least five prisons and penal colonies.

The Belarusian subcontractors, including Mogotex and Ivatsevichdrev, had relied on prison labour from the prisons IK-2, IK-4, IK-9, IK-15 and Rypp5, according to Disclose’s investigation.

“These are forced labour camps that are particularly brutal, known for practising torture as well as food and healthcare deprivation,” the French media outlet noted.

Ikea announced in early March that it was suspending its activities in Russia and in its ally Belarus, and later announced it was withdrawing from both countries.

In Belarus, the furniture company had no shops, but estimated that its subcontractors employed some 10,000 people, compared to 15,000 direct Ikea employees and 50,000 employed by subcontractors in Russia.

The Swedish-based multinational, which is mainly controlled by holding companies registered in the Netherlands, has already been seen another prison labour scandal.

In 2012, following an internal investigation, Ikea admitted that some of its suppliers had used forced labour of political prisoners in East Germany in the 1970s and 1980s.

The internal audit was initiated following revelations by a Swedish investigative programme. AFP