Correspondence
Email sent to the contact address for Wout Taal B.V.
The email said: "I’m contacting you in light of our latest investigation which concerns abuses in the Chinese squid fishing and seafood processing industry, and a link we’ve discovered between companies engaged in such practices and your supply chain. The supplier Shandong Haidu is a Chishan Group company. Fishing vessels owned by the group have been observed fishing in North Korean waters in contravention of UN sanctions and fishing illegally in Indonesian waters. The group also owns at least two reefer vessels which have transshipped with dozens of fishing ships tied to illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing as well as human rights abuses. Since 2021, Shandong Haidu Ocean Product Co., Ltd. has received persons from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China under the state-imposed labor transfer program. 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 programs which use coercive methods in worker enrollment, and obstruct freedom to leave employment. Does Wout Taal Import B.V. have any comment or statement to make in light of the above information? Please let me know by close of business July 18, 2023."