Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to tackle the use of forced labour in (a) Tibet and (b) Xinjiang.
Evidence of forced labour within Tibet and Xinjiang is credible and growing. The UK continues to urge China to respect all fundamental rights in line with both its own constitution and its international human rights obligations. The Foreign Secretary raised concerns about Uyghur forced labour in his intervention at the UN Human Rights Council on 22 February. On 12 January, the Foreign Secretary announced robust, targeted measures to help ensure that British organisations, whether public or private sector, are not complicit in, nor profiting from, the human rights violations in Xinjiang. These measures will target in a forensic way either those profiting from forced labour or those who would financially support it, whether deliberately or otherwise.