Campaign lobbies UK regulator with Shein forced labour dossier
Stop Uyghur Genocide claims new evidence in Shein's supply chain should bar the fashion retailer from listing in London
A human rights campaign group has submitted new evidence to UK regulator the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) detailing the use of forced labour within fashion group Shein’s supply chain.
The Stop Uyghur Genocide charity said its “dossier” of evidence should bar the China-based online fashion retailer from listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), highlighting a “real risk that Shein’s supply chains include the use of Uyghur forced labour”.
“Stop Uyghur Genocide has submitted a dossier which they say shows clear, identifiable links between cotton production in the Uyghur region (XUAR) and forced labour, and points to publicly available evidence which they say links Shein’s supply chains to cotton produced in XUAR,” said law firm Leigh Day, which is representing the charity. Its evidence references the results of laboratory tests conducted by Bloomberg News in 2022 that revealed Shein clothing shipped to the US was made from cotton from the Uyghur region.
The Stop Uyghur Genocide campaign said use of forced labour in Shein’s supply chains would be a breach of the UK’s Modern Slavery Act and should block Shein’s reported application for a listing in London.
It further argued that evidence heard at a Court of Appeal earlier this year brought by the World Uyghur Congress, which highlighted growing evidence of serious human rights abuses in the XUAR cotton industry, should presume that all cotton produced from the region is “tainted”.
The latest submission follows the campaign’s letter to the FCA in June, requesting that a potential listing by Shein should be rejected in line with the US SEC’s refusal to recommend a listing because of concerns about labour practices in Shein’s supply chains, Leigh Day said.
Rahima Mahmut, executive director of Stop Uyghur Genocide, said: “Following our initial letter in June, Stop Uyghur Genocide has served notice to the FCA, presenting evidence that we say shows the Chinese Communist Party is involved in forced labour and egregious human rights violations against the Uyghur people and other ethnic groups in the Uyghur Region, and that Shein’s supply chains are reportedly tainted by this forced labour.”
He added: “We strongly urge the FCA and LSE to uphold their standards and refrain from proceeding with Shein’s IPO on the London Stock Exchange.”
Shein, which has not confirmed an application to list on the LSE, recently disclosed two identified cases of child labour in its supply chain. Publishing a sustainability report for 2023, Shein said it suspended orders from the suppliers found to be using children under the age of 16, and began to work with them again after they took action to improve their due diligence.
The retailer said it implemented new policies last October to terminate contracts in future with manufacturers that violate child labour or forced labour rules.
