Canada probes allegations Walmart, Hugo Boss, Diesel used Uighur forced labour
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Lawmakers in Western nations, including Canada, have called the crackdown in Xinjiang a genocide.
PHOTO: AFP
Follow topic:
Ottawa – Canada’s corporate watchdog on Thursday launched investigations of Walmart, Hugo Boss and jeans maker Diesel over allegations they used forced labour from China’s Uighur minority.
The announcement follows similar probes started in the past month of Ralph Lauren, Nike and Canadian mining firm Dynasty Gold by the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE).
A coalition of 28 civil society organisations last year filed complaints with the watchdog alleging Walmart, Hugo Boss and Diesel use Chinese suppliers with factories that have been linked to Uighur forced labour.
All three denied the accusations and declined to participate in the ombudsperson’s preliminary assessments of the claims.
And so, ombudsperson Sheri Meyerhoffer said in a statement, “We will be launching investigations into the allegations.”
Rights groups say more than one million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities have been held in so-called re-education camps in China’s western Xinjiang region, with a slew of abuses that include forced labour.
Lawmakers in Western nations, including Canada, have called the crackdown in Xinjiang a genocide, and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has referred to the treatment of Uighurs as crimes against humanity.
Beijing denies the accusations,
