For the second time this year, the United States (US) federal authorities seized a shipment of products believed to made from human hair of Muslims in labour camps in China’s western Xinjiang province.
13 tons of weaves and other hair products worth approximately $ 800,000 were present in the shipment, according to US Customs and Border Protection officials.
The first shipment made in May and today’s shipment were both made from exporters in China’s western Xinjiang region, where, over the past four years, the government has detained an estimated 1 million or more ethnic Turkic minorities.
The Turkic minorities, Uighurs, are held as detainees in internment camps and prisons where they undergo ideological discipline; forcing them to denounce Islam, their language and be subjected to physical abuse.
Reports by AP and other news organizations have continuously over the years stated that the camps and prisons are used to make sportswear and other clothing for popular US brands.
Brenda Smith, the executive assistant commissioner of CBP’s office of trade, said, “The production of these goods constitutes a very serious human rights violation, and the detention order is intended to send a clear and direct message to all entities seeking to do business with the United States that illicit and inhumane practices will not be tolerated in US supply chains.”
The Chinese ministry of affairs responded to these allegations by stating that there is no forced labour, nor detention of the Turkic ethnic minorities.
Although China has put the Xinjiang region under tight surveillance and restricted reporting from the region, the Xinjiang authorities in December announced that the camps had closed and all detainees had “graduated”