A major Canadian clothing company canceled a contract with a Chinese supplier and pulled products from that source after media exposure showed it was using forced labor from North Korea.
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The story was revealed by broadcaster CBC, which, through secret investigations, showed that Dandong Huayang Textiles and Garment Co was using North Korean “guest” workers, who worked in arduous conditions, potentially as part of of a pilot project approved by Beijing in 2014.
The Canadian company Reitmans, which has more than 400 outlets in the country under several brands, issued a statement saying it had decided to “proactively stop issuing new purchase orders with this supplier” at the end of 2020 and also decided to “pull all remaining inventory” of styles from this supplier.
He added, “We are shocked by these new allegations regarding the presence of North Korean guest workers at what appear to be the factories of Dandong Huayang Textiles and Garments Ltd.”
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The factory in question refuted the claim that it was using “illegal workers,” according to CBC, in a television report. The newspaper also quoted experts as saying that the use of such labor was common practice in Dandong City, located near the Sino-Korean border.
He also said that the use of such labor could violate the 2017 UN Security Council sanctions banning the employment of North Korean migrant labor and ordering their repatriation. , fearing that their income could help “support” Pyongyang’s “banned nuclear and ballistic missile programs”. ”.
Montreal-headquartered Reitmans said it will donate the Chinese supplier’s unused clothing to local charities.
This is not the first time that the use of forced labor in Chinese factories has become an issue for a Canadian company, as there have been criticisms and condemnations of goods originating from Xinjiang, where China has been accused of to have managed concentration camp type facilities for the ethnic Uyghur population.
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Such reports led the Canadian government to announce in January a policy “advancing measures to combat the risk of forced labor from any country entering Canadian and global supply chains and to protect Canadian companies from complicity. without knowing”.
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