The British Government is being sued over claims it is “dragging its heels” over trade linked to forced labour in China.
Chinese labour camp survivor Erbakit Otarbay has accused the UK’s Trade Secretary for allowing cotton imports from the western Chinese province of Xinjiang, where it has been alleged local minority groups such as the Uyghurs have been subjected to human rights violations.
Erbakit Otarbay has spoken out despite receiving warnings that it could put his family in danger.
He told Sky News: “I’m lucky I’m in a free country now. But I can’t not think about people who I left behind. I don’t know what happened to them, what kind of horrors they have been subjected to.”
Mr Otarbay, who is Chinese but ethnically Kazakh, was forced to work in a clothing factory after being arrested in Xinjiang in 2017.
He has written a pre-action letter to Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch. In the document he demands she address the “ongoing failure” of the UK to impose any restrictions on cotton imports from the region.
Mr Otarbay was detained at a centre in Xinjiang after being accused of watching illegal videos on Islam and installing WhatsApp on his phone.
He said he “wished he died quickly” and was tortured on a number of occasions until he passed out.
His lawyer, Paul Conrathe, said it is “outrageous” that the UK government is “hiding behind manifestly inadequate legislation”.
The former leader of the Conservatives, Sir Iain Duncan Smith, says the UK is “lagging behind other countries”.
Over 280 organisations, including the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN), are also calling for all products from Xinjiang to be removed from supply chains.
They said “virtually the entire UK apparel industry” is at risk of being linked to forced labour.
Earlier this year the United Nation’s human rights office said China’s treatment of its Uyghur population “may constitute crimes against humanity”. Meanwhile last December a tribunal in the UK found China guilty of genocide against the Uyghur people in Xinjiang.
China has always denied human rights violations and that the camps are vocational training centres and part of a programme to fight extremism. They had initially denied their existence.
A UK Government spokesperson said: “The evidence of the scale and severity of human rights violations being perpetrated in Xinjiang against Uyghur Muslims paints a truly harrowing picture which we absolutely condemn. Businesses should not be profiting from forced labour.
“The UK is absolutely committed to tackling the issue of Uyghur forced labour in supply chains and we have taken decisive action. Over the last year we have introduced new guidance on the risks of doing business in Xinjiang, enhanced export controls, and have committed to introduce financial penalties for organisations that do not comply with modern slavery reporting requirements.”
