BERLIN — Rights activists said Monday they had filed a
criminal complaint in Germany against five retailers including C&A, Lidl,
and Hugo Boss, accusing them of benefiting from forced labor among China's
Uyghur population.
اضافة اعلان
The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights
(ECCHR) said it had filed the case, which also targeted the two supermarket
chains Aldi Nord and Aldi Sued, after carrying out an open source
investigation.
The ECCHR's Miriam Saage-Maass said it was difficult for
civil society organizations to obtain clear evidence of the abuse but there was
enough for prosecutors to take a closer look.
She said there was plenty of information emerging to suggest
forced labor was taking place.
"The question is whether entertaining business
relationships is not a way of aiding and abetting those international
crimes," she said.
Saage-Maass added that the five companies had listed
"publicly and voluntarily" their supplying factories from
Xinjiang —
the Chinese region at the center of forced-labor allegations — but that they
may just be the tip of the iceberg.
"We do believe that those five are really only an
example of a much wider and more systematic problem," she said.
She pointed out that Chinese cotton made up 20 percent of
global production — and 80 percent of it was produced in Xinjiang.
"So it's very likely that there are many more companies
sourcing from the region," she added.
Boycott calls
Contacted by AFP, fashion retailer C&A denied purchasing
any garments from Xinjiang-based manufacturers. It added that it has not been
sourcing yarn or fabric from the region.
Likewise, Hugo Boss rejected the ECCHR's claims. It argued
that its "values and standards were adhered to in the production of our
goods and that there are no violations of the law".
The Aldi group said the ECCHR's allegations were directed at
the supplier Turpan Jinpin Knitting, but it said it had stopped purchasing any
items from the company since the end of 2019.
The United States says that Beijing is carrying out genocide
against
Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim Turkic people in Xinjiang, where
experts estimate more than 1 million people are incarcerated in camps.
Beijing denies genocide and has described the camps as
vocational training centers aimed at steering people away from extremism after
years of unrest.
Uyghurs say are being forced to renounce religious traditions.
Several major consumer brands including Uniqlo, H&M,
Nike, and Adidas announced last year that they would stop buying cotton from
the region, leading to boycott calls in China.
The ECCHR's move follows similar action in France.
In July, French magistrates opened an inquiry into
allegations four fashion groups including Uniqlo and the owner of Zara profited
from Uyghur forced labor.
The case is based on a complaint lodged in April by the
anti-corruption group Sherpa, the French branch of the Clean Clothes Campaign,
and the Uyghur Institute of Europe, as well as by a Uyghur woman who had been
held in a camp in Xinjiang.
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