Correspondence
Email sent to the press team at Amazon Germany.
The email said: "We're contacting you in light of our latest investigation which concerns the use of forced labor in China’s food processing industry, and a link we’ve discovered between a company engaged in such practices and your supply chain.We have uncovered evidence that the Chinese company Dandong Yuanyi Refined Seafoods used North Korean labor after the December 2019 deadline for the repatriation of overseas North Korean workers required under United Nations Security Council sanctions. This evidence shows North Korean labor at Dandong Yuanyi’s factory in Liaoning, China, as recently as 2022. According to our research, Dandong Yuanyi has supplied squid products for EuroAsia’s MSDM range. We understand that MSDM dried squid is listed on your platform. While we appreciate that you may not be aware of the above issues, we want to ask if Amazon Germany has any comment in response to this email?"
Jennifer Flagg, Director of Crisis & Workplace Comms at Amazon, replied: "Thank you for your email. Are you available for a call later today? Please let me know when works for you."
The Outlaw Ocean Project replied: "Thank you for your email and your engagement on this. We are handling all these matters in writing and on record. So, if you have any questions, please let us know and we will be happy to help."
Jennifer Flagg, Director of Crisis & Workplace Comms at Amazon, responded: "Thank you for letting me know. We take these allegations seriously, and we expect all products sold in the Amazon Stores to be manufactured and produced in accordance with our Supply Chain Standards. Could you provide us with some more information about what you have uncovered so we can further look into this matter?"
The Outlaw Ocean Project replied: "Thanks Jennifer, we appreciate your interest in the evidence we have gathered, but at this stage of our investigation are unable to share materials. We can confirm that we have video evidence of North Korean labor at Dandong Yuanyi’s factory in Liaoning province in 2022. We found Dandang Yuanyi’s approved non-EU establishment code on packaging of EuroAsia’s ‘MSDM Tintenfisch Jerky’, indicating it supplied the product to EuroAsia. We emailed EuroAsia on June 16, 2023, and November 21, 2023, about this issue, but have not yet received a response. We have also emailed Amazon UK (on December 7, 2023) in relation to our investigation: Packaging analysis shows that a company called Cawoods Ltd. has been supplied salted pollock products from the Chinese company, Donggang Haimeng. Cawoods salted pollock products are listed on Amazon UK. We have video evidence of North Korean workers at Donggang Haimeng’s factory in Liaoning, China, in 2023. Does Amazon have any statement or comment in response to the above information?"
The Outlaw Ocean Project emailed: "Just checking in with you if we'll hear from Amazon on this before end of day Friday (December 15)?"
Jennifer Flagg replied: "I just realized that my email below didn’t send on Friday, so resending the statement, please see below. If there is an opportunity for your organization to share more information about the evidence you have, we would appreciate it. I’m sure you can understand that having evidence makes our internal work much more accurate and efficient. 'Amazon complies with the laws and regulations in all jurisdictions in which it operates. Amazon expects all products sold in Amazon Stores to be manufactured and produced in accordance with our Supply Chain Standards.' – Attributable to Jennifer Flagg, Amazon Spokesperson"
The Outlaw Ocean Project replied: "Thanks for your email and the statement. What more evidence do you seek: Proof of the supply chain connections between this plant and your company? Proof that the presence of North Korean workers in a given supply chain is a violation of UN Security Council sanctions? Proof of the existence of North Korean workers in a given plant? With regard to the final item, surely you can understand that if we hand you the videos in raw form and they come from the internet, your supplier will provide them to their counterpart in China and (speaking from experience here) the company and/or the government will remove or alter the videos as a method to undercut the claim.
We have of course saved copies, but law enforcement agencies in the US, the EU and the UN prefer that evidence of violations of federal law or UN sanctions is provided in original form, which (once the videos are wiped from the internet) becomes impossible. This is to say nothing of the additional risk we present to the uploaders of the videos if we share them with you and those videos end up back with Chinese authorities, which surely they will once you provide them to the relevant brands sourcing from China. So, alas, you see now why we prefer to describe in fairly exacting detail our evidence but not dangerously hand over raw content.
With our descriptions, other companies have found enough compelling reasons and methods to investigate their supply chains to see if indeed their auditing mechanisms are even checking for North Korean or Xinjiang labor, which generally speaking they aren't. You might consider reading this letter that was recently sent by US Congressman Jared Huffman’s office to Sysco which asks a number of questions about Sysco’s auditing practices and gets to the core of the concerns relating to the fact that most of their plants, if not all, are either not conducting audits at all or are conducting audits that systematically fail to identify state-sponsored forced labor in the form of North Koreans or Xinjiang workers. This letter is likely, in the core of its questions, going to be fairly relevant to the follow-up coverage that occurs after we publish our next round of reporting tied to the pervasive presence of North Korean workers at a variety of different seafood plants in China that service US seafood brands and that therefore are in violation of the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA)."