Not only are face masks dangerous to your health and dehumanising, it seems they are likely made with slave labour. MH
From The Guardian 22/7/20
© Provided by The Guardian Photograph: Reuters
Face masks manufactured at a Chinese factory using allegedly coerced Uighur labour are being sold in Australia, the Guardian has learned.
Australian demand for face masks is expected to skyrocket in coming weeks, after Victorian authorities mandated their use in metropolitan Melbourne and the Mitchell shire, and recommended them for regional areas.
At least 200,000 face masks made by Hubei Haixin Protective Products Group Co Ltd in China and then sent to multiple distributors in Australia are in question, and consumers may be unwittingly purchasing masks made by allegedly coerced labour.
Experts are now warning local face mask distributors, governments and consumers to ensure their supply chains are not tainted by factories using forced Uighur labour.
Related: Uighur woman says she was threatened by Chinese police after husband appeared on Q&A
Earlier this year, a report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute thinktank identified a series of factories linked to a program of forced labour involving 80,000 Uighurs, a persecuted minority subjected to mass detentions, surveillance and restrictions on their cultural and religious beliefs – in what critics say amounts to cultural genocide.© Photograph: Reuters A file photo of workers at a factory in Urumqi, in the Xinjiang region of China in January. A Chinese factory that allegedly uses coerced Uighur labour has exported face masks to Australia.
The report described the labour program as “a new phase in China’s social re-engineering”, and found evidence that some Uighur workers were shipped far from their homes to factories across China between 2017 and 2019, including in some cases directly from detention centres.
The evidence suggested highly coercive conditions, including constant surveillance, the banning of religious observance, limited freedom of movement, segregated dormitory living, supervision by “minders”, mandatory “ideological training”, anthem-singing, flag-raising and Mandarin classes…READ MORE