Uyghurs: products from forced labor soon to be banned in the EU?
The European Commission will propose that the sale of products resulting from forced labor be banned in the European Union, its President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Wednesday, September 15, which could concern Chinese production involving the Uyghur Muslim minority. “Twenty-five million people around the world are at risk of forced labor or are forced into it. We will never accept that they are forced to produce products only to have these products offered for sale here in Europe,” said said the President of the Commission during her annual State of the Union address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg. "We will therefore propose to ban products from our market which have been produced using forced labour. Human rights are not for sale at any price", she added.
While the head of the European executive did not name any specific country, French MEP Raphaël Glucksmann (S&D, left) rejoiced on Twitter that Ms. von der Leyen had "promised this morning to ban products from slavery of the Uyghurs of the European market". "The multinationals will do everything to block this measure. Let's mobilize!", He added.
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Beijing is accused by Western countries of massively interning members of this predominantly Muslim and Turkish-speaking community in Xinjiang (western China) in large labor camps, which China claims are only vocational training centers. Many factories, especially textiles, are located in this region, and according to experts and NGOs, they supply multinational companies.
Moreover, regarding China, Ursula von der Leyen, in her speech, also put pressure on Beijing to "show the same determination" to achieve its "encouraging" objectives for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. only to define them. The President of the European Commission also wanted the EU to be "more present and more active in the Indo-Pacific region" and to rethink its investment strategy there.
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"It does not make sense for Europe to build a perfect road between a copper mine under Chinese ownership and a port also under Chinese ownership", she underlined, calling instead for "quality investments, connecting goods, people and services around the world".
