British authorities must reconsider whether to open a probe into the importation of cotton allegedly produced by slave labour in the Chinese region of Xinjiang, a London court ruled on Thursday, allowing an appeal by a Uygur rights group.
The World Uygur Congress, an international organisation of exiled Uygur groups, took legal action against Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) after it declined to begin a criminal investigation.
Rights groups and the US government accuse China of widespread abuses of Uygurs and other Muslim minorities in the western region of Xinjiang, from where the vast majority of Chinese-produced cotton emanates.
Beijing vigorously denies any abuses, and its embassy in Washington has previously described allegations of forced labour as “nothing but a lie concocted by the US side in an attempt to wantonly suppress Chinese enterprises”.
The Chinese embassy in London did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.
In its legal action, the World Uygur Congress argued that the NCA wrongly failed to investigate whether cotton from Xinjiang amounts to “criminal property”.
Last year, a judge at London’s High Court ruled there was “clear and undisputed evidence of instances of cotton being manufactured … by the use of detained and prison labour as well as by forced labour”.
Leave a Reply