Abuses include arbitrary mass detention of an estimated 1 million to 1.8 million people, and a program to ‘cleanse’ ethnic groups of their ‘extremist’ thoughts through re-education and forced labour. This involves multiple forms of involuntary labour at workplaces across the region and even in other parts of China, writes Jewher Ilham is the Forced Labor Project Coordinator of the Worker Rights Consortium.

Uyghur forced labour is woven into the fabric of numerous global supply chains. Researchers have linked Uyghur forced labour to the supply chains of at least 17 industries, including apparel, food, information and communications technology, solar, mining, and automotive.