The Associated Press and NPR/Frontline and the New York Times and other news outlets are reporting that Chinese internment camps are forcing inmates to make apparel including for Badger Sportswear, the North Carolina based company. Ethnic Uighurs and Kasakhs who are discriminated against in Western China are forced into internment camps and for no pay made to work in factories within the areas they are confined in.
Chinese authorities say these are “training” facilities which is a blatant lie, the facilities are surrounded by barbed wire, people are not allowed to leave, and they are not paid.
Bates College in Maine is the first of what are sure to be many colleges and institutions pulling Badger products from their shelves.
The Badger CEO says they are voluntarily stopping importing from these facilities. I would hope so. The way supply chains work, there is no chance that they did not previously know of the working conditions in their factories. Shame on Badger for allowing this to go on until exposed.
How is a facility like this certified by WRAP?
WRAP has issued a statement that the garments in question did not come from the internment camp, but rather from a facility in a different part of that town. In their report WRAP said, “As with any manufacturing facility, the audit revealed the need for improvement in some areas, and WRAP will continue working with the facility to address these, but given the findings of our investigation, we are satisfied this particular facility is not engaged in the use of forced labor.”