Chasing Xinjiang sanctions busters to be a DHS priority
The US Department of Homeland Security (‘DHS’) has said it is to go after more companies doing business with China’s Xinjiang region, where Beijing is accused of using forced Uyghur labour, a senior DHS official said.
Since the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (‘UFLPA’) was passed in December 2021, DHS has kept a sanctions list of companies known to traffic in forced labour.
‘One of our highest priorities for 2023 is to add additional entities to that list,’ Robert Silvers, undersecretary for strategy, policy, and plans at the DHS, told an audience at the Hudson Institute in Washington D.C., March 17.
‘We are very aware, based on credible reporting from the NGO and other communities, that there’s a significant number of companies that are operating in Xinjiang or around Xinjiang that are engaging in these abhorrent practices and we want to name them and we want to ensure that their goods do not come into this country,’ he said.
Silvers said the DHS was very interested in using technology, including DNA testing, to catch illegal imports from Xinjiang of cotton, which was highly prized in the fashion industry and widely imported before the sanctions.
Silvers said that companies on the entities list can have their names removed if they can show they are no longer engaged in forced labour or other abuses in Xinjiang.
The Chinese government denies it has placed millions of Uyghurs, most of them Muslims, in labour camps. The United States has accused China of genocide in Xinjiang.
