Australia exposed to modern slave labour imports and many businesses ‘ignoring the facts’, commissioner warns
Australia’s new anti-slavery commissioner has called on the government to urgently address the “inadequacy” of its forced labour laws after revelations that it had allowed thousands of imports from Chinese companies blacklisted for their alleged links to Uyghur workers.
Guardian Australia revealed on Monday that Australia had received thousands of imports from Chinese companies blacklisted by the United States over alleged links to Uyghur forced labour.
Details gleaned from trade records, obtained by the Guardian via freedom of information laws, showed eight US-blacklisted companies were named as suppliers on 3,347 declarations made by Australian importers.