China, a superpower in the shipping industry, is said to be using forced labor on Uyghurs. Seafood products from this ethnic community would then end up directly on the plates of Western consumers..
The exploitation of the Uyghurs, China’s Muslim ethnic minority, has become a major concern on the international scene, exacerbated by recent UN reports and various investigations. The 46-page document recently unveiled by the UN accuses China of possible “crimes against humanity”, highlighting evidence of torture, sexual violence and arbitrary detention against Uyghurs. This alarming situation extends beyond simple internment, revealing a sophisticated system of labor transfer to industries including seafood.
The UN and several other sources denounce the existence of “re-education” camps where hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities are detained. These camps, presented by Beijing as “vocational training centers”, are in reality detention centers where systematic abuses, such as torture and sexual violence, are reported, if not institutionalized.
In parallel with these internments, China has implemented a vast program to transfer Uyghur labor to industrial regions. Ostensibly intended to promote employment and social harmony, the program is in fact a strategy of control and forced assimilation. Uyghurs are dispatched to factories processing products, some of which come from the sea, that end up on European and American market.
China, a maritime empire
China catches, processes and exports the vast majority of the world’s seafood. Little by little, the country has become a fishing superpower, deploying a fleet of nearly 7,000 deep-sea vessels. At the same time, the Middle Kingdom has considerably increased its capacity for packaging and freezing seafood products.
In order to accelerate the pace of fishing and packaging of its seafood products, China is said to be mobilizing the enslaved Uyghur community.
The Outlaw Ocean Project (TOOP) investigation, published in 2019 by journalist Ian Urbina for the New York Times, reveals that hundreds of Uyghurs would be transferred to seafood processing factories across China, including industrial regions such as Dandong. In particular, the journalistic NGO revealed edifying videos, bearing witness to the working conditions of Uyghurs and their forced recruitment into the factories.
Products disappearing off radar…
TOOP teams have traced the journey of seafood products from Chinese fishing vessels to grocery stores and restaurants in the USA and Europe. This investigation revealed major gaps in the traceability of each transfer. According to the results of the study, products are systematically mixed and repackaged in such a way that it is impossible to determine their exact origin, making the supply chain even more clouded.
Shipping giants Ruggiero Seafood, Kroger and Lidl have been linked to illegal fishing practices, despite their claims to respect ethical and environmental standards. The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification program aims primarily to prevent environmental crime, but does not assess working conditions in seafood factories or on fishing vessels.
Invisibilized in the international media sphere after having caused a scandal a few years ago, the situation of the Uyghurs in China is far from getting any better in 2024. Today, China is allegedly using these populations for capitalist ends. In so doing, it is guilty of slavery, genocide and crimes against humanity, all under the disapproving but powerless gaze of the international organizations that surround it.
