According to the research, there is a new reality in China when it comes to forced labor and Uyghurs- labor transfer schemes. Even worse, more than a hundred global brands have been linked to factories using labor “recruited” for the scheme, reports Pulitzer Center. And all these factories are located thousands of miles from the Uyghur region, pointing to a massive expansion of the use of forced labor in China.

When a choice is not a choice 

This new research was done by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ). It provides the most detailed picture to date of how the labor transfer scheme is moving tens of thousands of people from the region to factories located thousands of miles away in eastern China. Yet, authorities only recruit ethnic minorities like Uyghurs for the scheme. These groups are being “invited” to sign up for labor transfer programs. But what sounds like a choice is really no choice at all. 

Laura Murphy, a former senior policy adviser to the Biden administration on Uyghur forced labor said: 

“When a government official knocks on the door of a Uyghur person and says they should take a job far from home, the person knows this is not merely a request,”   

According to Murphy, the government has issued directives saying refusal to participate in a labor transfer scheme is punishable by detention. 

Murphy stated: 

“Every Uyghur in Xinjiang has either been in detention themselves or has someone close to them who has been. This is not a choice. This is not consent.”  

The new “recruits” are then systematically loaded onto buses and taken to new locations to live and work. Making everything from keyboards to cars, as well as components that end up in products shipped all over the world. Many of the items being made are just elements of a whole. And tracing these components through the product’s supply chain becomes difficult if not impossi

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