UK ‘dragging its heels’ over trade links to forced labour in China – as one survivor prepares to sue trade secretary
The British government has been accused of “dragging its heels” over trade linked to forced labour.
A Chinese labour camp survivor is preparing to sue the UK’s trade secretary for allowing cotton imports from the western Chinese province of Xinjiang, where it has been alleged local minority groups such as the Uyghurs have been subjected to human rights violations.
Erbakit Otarbay has spoken out despite warnings it could put his family in danger.
His lawyer, Paul Conrathe, says it is “outrageous” that the UK government is “hiding behind manifestly inadequate legislation”. The former leader of the Conservatives, Sir Iain Duncan Smith, says the UK is “lagging behind other countries”.
Mr Otarbay, who is Chinese but ethnically Kazakh, was forced to work in a clothing factory after being arrested in Xinjiang in 2017. He has written a pre-action letter to Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch, demanding she address the “ongoing failure” of the UK to impose any restrictions on cotton imports from the region.
He says: “I’m lucky I’m in a free country now. But I can’t not think about people who I left behind. I don’t know what happened to them, what kind of horrors they have been subjected to.”
Mr Otarbay was sent to a detention centre in Xinjiang after being accused of watching illegal videos on Islam and installing WhatsApp on his phone. He says he “wished he died quickly”, and was “chained and shackled” and tortured, on a number of occasions, until he passed out.
Over 280 organisations, including the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN), are also calling for all products from Xinjiang to be removed from supply chains.
They said “virtually the entire UK apparel industry” is at risk of being linked to forced labour.
Mr Otarbay says he was “chained and shackled” and tortured on a number of occasions
Ban on all cotton products from Xinjiang
Last year the US announced an import ban on all cotton products from Xinjiang; firms also have to prove any imports from the region are not produced using forced labour.
UK companies above a certain size must show they are avoiding using slavery in their supply chains. But there is currently no penalty if they fail to do so. A coordinated campaign is being launched in Ireland, where EU rules have also been criticised for not being strong enough.
Sir Iain said the UK is “very closely linked” to slave labour, and the government needs to make clear companies face “serious penalties” for not declaring where they are getting their goods from.
He said the UK “led the world” with the Modern Day Slavery Act, but “the key Achilles heel to our bill is that we need to have companies taking full responsibility for their supply chains”.
Earlier this year the United Nation’s human rights office said China’s treatment of its Uyghur population “may constitute crimes against humanity” and last December a tribunal in the UK found China guilty of genocide against the Uyghur people in Xinjiang.
China has always denied human rights violations. The government insists that the camps – which for a long time it denied even existed – are vocational training centres and part of a programme to fight extremism.
Read more:
Who are the Uyghur people and why do they face oppression by China?
Nike and H&M pay the price as China says Xinjiang forced labour is ‘nonsense’
‘I thought I had died’: Kazakhs say they were dragged in shackles and mistreated in Chinese detention centres
‘We approve of forced labour products’
Twenty percent of the world’s cotton is grown in Xinjiang, according to Laura Murphy, a human rights professor at Sheffield Hallam University in the UK. She says not strengthening the UK import rules is “tantamount to saying we approve of forced labour products entering into our borders”.
In a statement, a government spokesperson said: “The evidence of the scale and severity of human rights violations being perpetrated in Xinjiang against Uyghur Muslims paints a truly harrowing picture which we absolutely condemn.
“The UK is absolutely committed to tackling the issue of Uyghur forced labour in supply chains and we have taken decisive action.
“Over the last year, we have introduced new guidance on the risks of doing business in Xinjiang as well as enhanced export controls, and have committed to introduce financial penalties for organisations that do not comply with modern slavery reporting requirements.”
Thousands of troops are taking part in a joint military exercise between Russia and Belarus, as tensions with the EU run high following a Russian drone incursion into Polish airspace earlier this week.
The Zapad joint military exercise which began on Friday will involve drills in both Russia and Belarus as well as in the Baltic and Barents seas, the Russian defence ministry said.
Belarusian defence officials initially said about 13,000 troops would participate in the drill, but in May, its defence ministry said that would be cut nearly in half.
It comes just two days after Poland, with support from its NATO allies, shot down Russian drones over its airspace.
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Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Friday morning hit back at a suggestion by US President Donald Trump on Thursday that the incursion may have been a “mistake”.
He said in a post on X: “We would also wish that the drone attack on Poland was a mistake. But it wasn’t. And we know it.”
Russia said its forces had been attacking Ukraine at the time of the incursions and that it had not intended to hit any targets in Poland.
Friday also saw Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper travelling to Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv on the same day the UK announced fresh sanctions against Moscow.
Prince Harry was also in Kyiv for a surprise visit to help with the recovery of military personnel seriously injured in the three-year war with Russia.
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Prince Harry arrives in Kyiv
Ms Cooper, who was appointed foreign secretary last week, posted about her visit on X saying: “The UK’s support for Ukraine is steadfast. I am pleased to be in Kyiv on my first visit as Foreign Secretary.”
The UK’s new sanctions include bans on 70 vessels that Britain says are part of Russia’s “shadow fleet” that transports Russian oil in defiance of sanctions already in place.
Yvette Cooper with Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv. Pic: Valentyn Ogirenko/PA
Some 30 individuals and companies – including Chinese and Turkey-based firms – have also been sanctioned for their part in supplying Russia with electronics, chemicals, explosives and other weapons components.
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Meanwhile on the frontline, Ukrainian drones struck Russia’s oil-loading Primorsk port overnight, an SBU official said.
The attack caused fires and suspended oil-loading operations, the official added.
Russian defence systems also intercepted and destroyed 221 Ukrainian drones overnight.
Prince Harry has made a surprise visit to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, a spokesperson for the royal has said.
Harry, who served 10 years in the British Army, visited the city at the invitation of the Ukrainian government.
The Duke of Sussex travelled to the capital to help with the recovery of military personnel seriously injured in the three-year war with Russia.
Pic: Railway of Ukraine Ukrzaliznytsia/AP
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper will also be travelling to Kyiv on Friday in what will be her first foreign trip since being appointed to the job last week.
Her visit coincides with the UK launching a new package of Russia-related sanctions targeting ships carrying Russian oil as well as companies and individuals supplying electronics, chemicals and explosives used to make Russian weapons.
It comes as Russia and Belarus began a major joint military exercise on on NATO’s doorstep on Friday, just two days after Poland, with support from its NATO allies, shot down suspected Russian drones over its airspace.
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Drones shot down in Poland
The Zapad-2025 exercise – a show of force by Russia and its close ally – will involve drills in both countries and in the Baltic and Barents seas, the Russian defence ministry said.
Meanwhile on the frontline, Russian defence systems intercepted and destroyed 221 Ukrainian drones overnight,
including nine over the Moscow region, the ministry said on Friday.
The duke told the Guardian while on an overnight train to Kyiv: “We cannot stop the war but what we can do is do everything we can to help the recovery process.
“We can continue to humanise the people involved in this war and what they are going through.
“We have to keep it in the forefront of people’s minds. I hope this trip will help to bring it home to people because it’s easy to become desensitised to what has been going on.”
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Harry, who served two tours in Afghanistan, previously travelled to Ukraine in April, when he visited war victims as part of his work with wounded veterans.
The prince visited the Superhumans Center, an orthopaedic clinic in Lviv that treats and rehabilitates wounded military personnel and civilians.
Earlier this week, Harry said the King is “great” after he reunited with him at Clarence House for a private tea.
It was their first meeting in 19 months and lasted just 54 minutes.
The last time the father and son saw each other was in February 2024 when the prince flew to the UK after the monarch announced his cancer diagnosis.
Harry and his wife Meghan Markle have lived in California since they quit roles as senior working royals in March 2020.
Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro has been sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison for attempting a coup to stay in power after his 2022 election defeat.
The far-right politician, who ruled Brazil between 2019 and 2022, is currently under house arrest in the capital, Brasilia.
A panel of five Supreme Court justices handed down the sentence several hours after they found the 70-year-old guilty on five counts.
The counts were trying to stage a coup, being part of an armed criminal organisation, attempting violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, being implicated in violence, and posing a serious threat to the state’s assets and listed heritage.
Bolsonaro‘s lawyers have said they will appeal the verdict.
Pic: AP
The ruling will deepen political divisions in Brazil and is also likely to prompt a backlash from the United States government – with Donald Trump already sharing his thoughts on the vote.
President Trump, an ally of Bolsonaro, has said he was surprised and “very unhappy” with the decision.
Speaking to reporters outside the White House, he said he always found Bolsonaro “outstanding” and said the conviction is “very bad for Brazil”.
Mr Trump previously called the case a “witch hunt”, slapped Brazil with tariff hikes, and revoked US visas for most members of Brazil’s high court.
Bolsonaro is the first former Brazilian president to be convicted of attempting a coup.
He has not attended the court proceedings, and on Thursday, he was seen at the garage of his property, but did not talk to the media.
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Justice Carmen Lucia. Pic: AP
Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who has been overseeing the case, said on Tuesday that Bolsonaro was the leader of a coup plot and of a criminal organisation, and voted in favour of convicting him. Justices Flavio Dino, Carmen Lucia, and Cristiano Zanin sided with Justice Moraes in the trial.
On Wednesday, another justice, Luiz Fux, disagreed and voted to acquit the ex-president of all charges.
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Justice Lucia said she was convinced by the evidence the attorney general’s office put forward against Bolsonaro, saying: “He is the instigator, the leader of an organisation that orchestrated every possible move to maintain or seize power.”
Bolsonaro had been previously banned from running for office until 2030 in a different case.
He is expected to choose an heir who is likely to challenge President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva next year.
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