Import of Products of Forced Labour From Xinjiang (Prohibition)

Brendan O'Hara Excerpts

1st reading
Wednesday 27th April 2022 Commons Chamber

[Brendan O’Hara (Argyll and Bute) (SNP)]

I beg to move,

That leave be given to bring in a Bill to prohibit the import of products made by forced labour in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region; to require all companies importing products from Xinjiang to the UK to provide proof that the manufacture of those products has not involved forced labour; and for connected purposes.

The Bill has two simple aims: aims that are already deeply enshrined in our international human rights obligations, and which we now wish to implement. The first is to prohibit the import of products made by forced labour in the Xinjiang region, and the second is to require all companies importing products from Xinjiang to the UK to provide proof that their manufacture has not involved forced labour. I do not believe for a moment that this is in any way controversial, or is something to which the people of the United Kingdom would object. Indeed, I am convinced that people across these islands would want to know that what they pick up in their local supermarket or hardware store, or purchase from an online retailer, has not been made by slave labour.

In 2021, in its annual report on people trafficking, the US State Department reported:

“In Xinjiang, the government is the trafficker. Authorities use threats of physical violence, forcible drug intake, physical and sexual abuse, and torture to force detainees to work in adjacent or off-site factories or worksites producing garments, footwear, carpets, yarn, food products, holiday decorations, building materials, extractives, materials for solar power equipment and other renewable energy components, consumer electronics, bedding, hair products, cleaning supplies, personal protective equipment, face masks, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and other goods—and these goods are finding their way into businesses and homes around the world.”

That is why, in December 2021, President Biden signed into law an Act, which had passed through Congress with support on both sides of the aisle, to ensure that

“all goods, wares, articles, and merchandise mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part”

in Xinjiang could not enter the United States unless businesses could prove that what they were importing had not been produced with forced labour. The Act puts the United States way ahead of the rest of the international community in confronting China’s abuse of the Uyghurs, because, crucially, it makes the assumption that goods coming from Xinjiang are made with forced labour, and businesses will have to prove that that is not the case before they can be brought into the country.

The US legislation has received widespread support from human rights campaigners and the Uyghur diaspora. Nury Turkel, a United States-educated Uyghur-American lawyer and a commissioner on the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, has challenged countries that are reluctant to follow the US lead on this issue, asking, “How do you propose to get China to change without going after the most important thing to the Chinese Government, which is their economic interest?” He is absolutely right, because whether we like it or not, the only thing that will make the Chinese Government change their behaviour is the imposition of meaningful economic sanctions. I think that consumers here in the United Kingdom would welcome the confidence that when they purchase goods that have been produced or imported from China, they are not inadvertently complicit in China’s horrific human rights abuses.

In 2020, the UK Government said that they would

“continue to urge the Chinese authorities to change their approach in Xinjiang and respect international human rights norms, both bilaterally with China, and at the UN alongside our international partners.”

There is, however, no evidence whatsoever that that approach has worked, and it is clear that China has not paid the slightest heed to what the UK Government—or, indeed, anyone else—has had to say about its human rights record. Now, perhaps, with the United States increasing the pressure and leading the way with this new legislation, it is time for the UK and others to follow.

On Wednesday night the Government tabled an amendment to the Health and Care Bill that recognised the serious problem of products produced as a result of slavery and human trafficking entering the supply chain in NHS procurement. It has been known for some time that billions of pounds’-worth of NHS medical equipment has been sourced in whole or in part from forced labour in Xinjiang. That fact was recognised earlier this month, with Lord Blencathra saying:

“Despite widespread reports of forced labour in that region, our supply chain laws have failed to prevent such procurement.”—[Official Report, House of Lords, 5 April 2022; Vol. 820, c. 2011.]

It is an outrage that our healthcare workers have been forced to put on PPE that originated in the forced labour camps of Xinjiang. Something has to be done about it, and I applaud the work done by the World Uyghur Council and the British Medical Association on highlighting the scandal of PPE procurement that resulted in Uyghur slave-made goods flooding into the UK and into the NHS in particular.

I welcome the Government’s amendment that recognises the scale of the problem and gives the Secretary of State the power to do something about it, but it is not, in and of itself, the answer. It cannot be seen as anything more than a welcome first step in tackling this issue. The wording of the amendment is weak, as it merely states:

“The Secretary of State must by regulations make such provision as the Secretary of State thinks appropriate with a view to eradicating the use in the health service in England of goods or services that are tainted by slavery and human trafficking.”

That amendment should have been far more explicit. It should have stated categorically that anything tainted by slavery or human trafficking would not be permitted to enter the supply chain of NHS procurement, and that the onus for proving that it had not come from the forced labour camps of Xinjiang should be on those importing the equipment. But it is a first step, and having formally recognised the problem that the NHS is being flooded by such goods and products, we must now work to ensure that all other sectors of our economy exclude products that are tainted by slavery or forced labour. There is only one way of doing that, and that is through legislation.

We would all like to believe that slavery has been consigned to the pages of history. Sadly, we know that that is not the case and that this abhorrent practice is still widespread in parts of the world, including in China where many of the 1 million to 2 million Uyghurs who have disappeared are working under forced labour conditions. We also know that, despite claiming to have ethical business models and to be champions of best practices in safeguarding human rights, there is credible evidence to suggest that many recognisable high street brands are complicit in using exploited Uyghur forced labour in their supply chains. That means that, as consumers, we have no idea if the clothes we wear, the phones we carry and the variety of other everyday consumer goods we take for granted have been made in these forced labour camps before arriving on our high streets.

This has gone on for far too long, with companies and entire countries turning a blind eye to modern slavery in the interests of continuing the supply of consumer goods and maximising commercial profit. It has to stop, and in the absence of a copper-bottomed commitment by the companies to make it stop, we will have to follow the lead of Congress and legislate to make it stop. If these companies are telling the truth, and if they have nothing to hide, they have nothing to fear from legislation such as this.

Whether we like it or not, the global economy is tainted by Uyghur slavery and forced labour, and China’s treatment of the Uyghurs is a challenge for the world and a test of just how robust the international community’s commitment is to universal human rights when it comes into conflict with multinational commercial interests. We cannot now pretend that we do not know what is happening in Xinjiang. We can no longer be blissfully unaware that so much of what we consume is the product of slave labour. And we cannot kid ourselves on that we cannot do anything about it.

Loose arrangements, voluntary codes, finger wagging and sage advice have, by and large, failed to stop companies and importers being extremely lax in their attitude to weeding out anything that may have been manufactured or originated using slave labour. Similarly, harsh condemnation, desperate urging and impassioned persuasion have all failed to shift China’s policy one iota, and that is why the time has come for legislation. That is why this Bill’s time has come, and why being part of that united international front against modern-day slavery is going to get the companies to comply and get China to change its ways.

Question put and agreed to.

Ordered,

That Brendan O’Hara, Ms Nusrat Ghani, Rushanara Ali, Patricia Gibson, Jim Shannon, Debbie Abrahams, Mr Alistair Carmichael, Chris Law, Fiona Bruce, Patrick Grady, Liz Saville Roberts and Siobhain McDonagh present the Bill.

Brendan O’Hara accordingly presented the Bill.

Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 6 May, and to be printed (Bill 309).

Elections Bill: Programme (No.2)

Motion made, and Question put forthwith (Standing Order No. 83A(7)),

That the following provisions shall apply to the Elections Bill for the purpose of supplementing the Order of 7 September 2021 (Elections Bill (Programme)):

Consideration of Lords Amendments

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(2) That the Lords Amendments be considered in the following order, namely: 22, 23, 86, 1 to 21, 24 to 85, 87 to 126.

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Question agreed to.