Amazon accused of using suppliers with links to forced labour in China

According to a report from the non-profit group, Tech Transparency Project, Amazon is working with suppliers in China, who have links to forced Uyghur labour.

Uyghur is a  minority Muslim, mainly from the Xinjiang region of China. The Chinese government has been criticized by human rights groups that systematically oppress Uyghur, including imprisoning up to 1 million Uyghur people.

TTP uses Amazon's June 2021 supplier list to relate to a forced labour program called "labour transfer," in which five companies on the list force Uyghur to relocate to other parts of China. TTP has published reports that criticize the supply chain of technology companies in the past as well.

TTP also said it has found evidence of a third-party seller on Amazon that contains Xinjiang cotton, which has been banned from US imports since September 2020.

Amazon isn't the only US company operating in China that has been accused of benefiting from Uyghur forced labour in recent years. A May 2021 study by the Information found that seven Apple suppliers were associated with forced labour programs. 

In recent years, there has been increasing political pressure on US companies to sanction products manufactured using Uyghur forced labour. President Joe Biden signed the Uyghur Forced Labour Prevention Act in December 2021. The law prohibits imports from Xinjiang unless the importer can prove that forced labour was not used in its production.