Correspondence
Email sent to the contact address for SAI.
The email said: "I’m 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 with an auditable standard managed by your organization.
Our investigation has identified 11 Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified seafood processing facilities in China using forced labor from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).
The MSC certificates were issued after all 11 processing plants are known to have accepted Uyghurs through Chinese government labor transfer programs, and the investigation demonstrates the presence of Uyghur forced labor over a multi-year period at most of the plants.
The United Nations, human rights organizations and academic experts agree that since 2018, the Chinese government has systematically subjected Xinjiang’s predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities to forced labor across the country via state-sanctioned employment schemes which use coercive methods in worker enrolment.
Your organization oversees the SA8000 standard, one of the four auditable standards recognised by the MSC according to its October 2022 Labour Eligibility Requirements. Does Social Accountability International have any comment to make in light of the above information? Please respond to this email by close of business June 23, 2023."