Seafood allegedly produced using the forced labour of Uyghur people in China may have been sold at Iceland – and could be on sale now at other British supermarkets, according to an investigation.
Iceland told Sky News it no longer had a relationship with the Chinese supplier in question.
Since 2018, the Chinese government is believed to have moved tens of thousands of Uyghurs from their homes in Xinjiang to other parts of China, as part of a “labour transfer programme”.
Human rights advocates say the programme constitutes forced labour, a charge that China has repeatedly denied. The Chinese embassy did not respond to our request for a comment.
An investigation by non-profit journalism organisation The Outlaw Ocean Project – shared with Sky News – has found that nine large seafood companies in Shandong, a province in east China, have received at least 2,000 Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities from Xinjiang – and that many of them supply the UK.
One of those is Shandong Meijia Group, one of the largest seafood processing companies in China.
Image: Workers inside the Yantai Sanko Fisheries plant in Shandong province. Pic: Douyin
The company had posted an article on its website showing Uyghurs arriving as part of the “integration of the national family”.
After Sky News sent questions to the company, the article was deleted. A manager at the entrance told our reporting team that there were no Uyghur workers.
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But videos posted to Douyin – the Chinese counterpart of TikTok – have been uncovered by Outlaw Ocean and verified by Sky News.
They show Uyghur workers as recently as October 2022, and at another factory as recently as May 2023, at two Meijia Group plants: Meijia Jiayuan and Meijia Keyuan.
Shandong Meijia did not respond to Sky News’s request for comment.
Image: Exhausted Uyghur workers inside the plant in 2021. Pic: Douyin
The Outlaw Ocean Project reviewed hundreds of pages of internal company newsletters, local news reports, a database of Uyghur testimonies, trade data, and satellite and cell phone imagery to verify the location of processing plants.
They also verified that the Douyin users had initially registered in Xinjiang.
Image: Reporter Ian Urbina throws a bottle with interview questions inside at Chinese squid boat. Pic: The Outlaw Ocean Project/James Glancy
Interview questions thrown to crew inside plastic bottles
This investigation was produced by The Outlaw Ocean Project, which focuses on human rights and environmental crimes at sea around the world.
Based on over four years of reporting at sea and on land, including on the high seas near North Korea, West Africa, the Galapagos, and the Falkland islands, the investigation was conducted in collaboration with the New Yorker, and derives from reporting and writing from Ian Urbina, Maya Martin, Sue Ryan, Joe Galvin, Daniel Murphy, Jake Conley and Austin Brush.
To chronicle working conditions on Chinese fishing ships, the reporting team boarded vessels at sea and interviewed crew.
When permitted, they boarded vessels to talk to crew, or came alongside them to interview officers by radio.
In many instances, the Chinese ships got spooked, pulling up their gear and fleeing.
When this happened, the team trailed the ships in a small boat to get close enough to throw aboard plastic bottles weighed down with rice, and containing a pen, cigarettes, hard sweets, and interview questions.
On several occasions, deckhands wrote replies, providing phone numbers for family back home, and then threw the bottles back into the water.
The reporting included interviews with their family members, and with two dozen additional crew members.
Iceland hasn’t received products for ‘significant period’
Meijia’s customers include Iceland, and distributors Fastnet Fish and Westbridge Foods Ltd, according to an archived version of their customer list on their website.
Fastnet Fish has said that as a result of the investigation it had terminated its relationship with Meijia. Westbridge Foods did respond to Sky News’s request for comment.
Iceland appeared to admit that Meijia had, at one point, been a supplier – but a spokesperson told Sky News: “We can confirm that Iceland is not, nor has not for a significant period, received any products from such sites.
“It is Iceland’s policy to be able to act responsibly in all commercial and trading activities to establish that the working conditions of people working for, and within the supply chain, meet relevant international standards.”
Asked by Sky News, the supermarket did not explain when or why it stopped receiving products.
It also said it was working with international auditing organisations, such as the Ethical Trading Initiative and Sedex, on the issue of relocation of Uyghurs in China.
Image: Yantai Sanko Fisheries workers at ‘political education sessions’ at the factory in 2021. Pic: Yantai United Front Work Department
Sainsbury’s ‘working to understand situation’
Uyghur workers were also deployed to other seafood factories run by the Chishan group, a Chinese conglomerate, according to The Outlaw Ocean Project’s research.
The company supplies Lyons Seafoods, which produces branded and private-label seafood for retailers including Sainsbury’s.
Lyons did not respond to Sky News’s request for comment – but its French parent company Labeyrie had previously told the Outlaw Ocean Project that they were “extremely concerned” by the allegations.
A Sainsbury’s spokesperson told Sky News: “All of our suppliers have to meet our high ethical and worker welfare standards.
“If we have any reason to believe there is a situation within our supply chains which is in breach of those standards we take immediate action.
“We are working together with our suppliers and wider industry partners to understand the situation and take the most responsible and appropriate next steps.”
Fish shipments bound for Europe usually pass through Rotterdam – where sometimes they are repackaged in different containers – which can add to the difficulty in tracking shipments.
From there, the seafood shipments arrive at UK ports, such as Felixstowe.
Image: A map showing the supply chain of seafood from China to the UK
‘Human trafficking, wage theft and criminal level of neglect’
As part of a four-year-long investigation, the Outlaw Ocean Project may have revealed other abuses connected to China’s vast fishing fleet – including the story of Daniel Daniel Aritonang, a 20-year-old Indonesian who died from the disease Beriberi after suffering abuse on a Chinese vessel.
Image: Daniel Aritonang
Ian Urbina, the director of the Outlaw Ocean Project, told Sky News: “The human rights and labour crimes – you’re dealing with human trafficking, you’re dealing with death by violence, wage theft, blocking of timely access to medical care, criminal level of neglect in the form of Beriberi, people that are essentially deprived of the key nutrients to be able to survive.
“Vessels that go dark and turn off their transponders and they disappear – all these are well documented crimes as well that are in the marine space.”
Image: Workers being interviewed on board a Chinese squid fishing ship. Pic: Ed Ou
The group that owned the vessel, Rongcheng Wangda, has denied any wrongdoing and has referred the matter to the China Overseas Fisheries Association for investigation. No criminal case been brought.
Image: Chinese government video claiming to show transfer of workers from Xinjiang. Pic: Douyin/Kashgar Media Centre
“The reality is that because it’s out of sight, out of mind, you know, a lot of that is happening over the horizon, quite literally,” David Hammond, chief executive of the NGO Human Rights at Sea, told Sky News.
“Nobody knows what’s going on. So you then have the issue of enforcement and there is a massive lacuna in the enforcement issue from coastal states and international waters.
“And without enforcement, you don’t have a deterrent effect and without deterrent effect, you have impunity.”
The Data and Forensics team is a multi-skilled unit dedicated to providing transparent journalism from Sky News. We gather, analyse and visualise data to tell data-driven stories. We combine traditional reporting skills with advanced analysis of satellite images, social media and other open source information. Through multimedia storytelling we aim to better explain the world while also showing how our journalism is done.
Britain’s biggest high street bank is in talks to buy Curve, the digital wallet provider, amid growing regulatory pressure on Apple to open its payment services to rivals.
Sky News has learnt that Lloyds Banking Group is in advanced discussions to acquire Curve for a price believed to be up to £120m.
City sources said this weekend that if the negotiations were successfully concluded, a deal could be announced by the end of September.
Curve was founded by Shachar Bialick, a former Israeli special forces soldier, in 2016.
Three years later, he told an interviewer: “In 10 years time we are going to be IPOed [listed on the public equity markets]… and hopefully worth around $50bn to $60bn.”
One insider said this weekend that Curve was being advised by KBW, part of the investment bank Stifel, on the discussions with Lloyds.
If a mooted price range of £100m-£120m turns out to be accurate, that would represent a lower valuation than the £133m Curve raised in its Series C funding round, which concluded in 2023.
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That round included backing from Britannia, IDC Ventures, Cercano Management – the venture arm of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s estate – and Outward VC.
It was also reported to have raised more than £40m last year, while reducing employee numbers and suspending its US expansion.
In total, the company has raised more than £200m in equity since it was founded.
Curve has been positioned as a rival to Apple Pay in recent years, having initially launched as an app enabling consumers to combine their debit and credit cards in a single wallet.
One source close to the prospective deal said that Lloyds had identified Curve as a strategically attractive bid target as it pushes deeper into payments infrastructure under chief executive Charlie Nunn.
Lloyds is also said to believe that Curve would be a financially rational asset to own because of the fees Apple charges consumers to use its Apple Pay service.
In March, the Financial Conduct Authority and Payment Systems Regulator began working with the Competition and Markets Authority to examine the implications of the growth of digital wallets owned by Apple and Google.
Lloyds owns stakes in a number of fintechs, including the banking-as-a-service platform ThoughtMachine, but has set expanding its tech capabilities as a key strategic objective.
The group employs more than 70,000 people and operates more than 750 branches across Britain.
Curve is chaired by Lord Fink, the former Man Group chief executive who has become a prolific investor in British technology start-ups.
When he was appointed to the role in January, he said: “Working alongside Curve as an investor, I have had a ringside seat to the company’s unassailable and well-earned rise.
“Beginning as a card which combines all your cards into one, to the all-encompassing digital wallet it has evolved into, Curve offers a transformative financial management experience to its users.
“I am proud to have been part of the journey so far, and welcome the chance to support the company through its next, very significant period of growth.”
IDC Ventures, one of the investors in Curve’s Series C funding round, said at the time of its last major fundraising: “Thanks to their unique technology…they have the capability to intercept the transaction and supercharge the customer experience, with its Double Dip Rewards, [and] eliminating nasty hidden fees.
“And they do it seamlessly, without any need for the customer to change the cards they pay with.”
News of the talks between Lloyds and Curve comes days before Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, is expected to outline plans to bolster Britain’s fintech sector by endorsing a concierge service to match start-ups with investors.
Lord Fink declined to comment when contacted by Sky News on Saturday morning, while Curve did not respond to an enquiry sent by email.
Lloyds also declined to comment, while Stifel KBW could not be reached for comment.
The UK economy unexpectedly shrank in May, even after the worst of Donald Trump’s tariffs were paused, official figures showed.
A standard measure of economic growth, gross domestic product (GDP), contracted 0.1% in May, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Rather than a fall being anticipated, growth of 0.1% was forecast by economists polled by Reuters as big falls in production and construction were seen.
It followed a 0.3% contraction in April, when Mr Trump announced his country-specific tariffs and sparked a global trade war.
A 90-day pause on these import taxes, which has been extended, allowed more normality to resume.
This was borne out by other figures released by the ONS on Friday.
Exports to the United States rose £300m but “remained relatively low” following a “substantial decrease” in April, the data said.
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Overall, there was a “large rise in goods imports and a fall in goods exports”.
A ‘disappointing’ but mixed picture
It’s “disappointing” news, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said. She and the government as a whole have repeatedly said growing the economy was their number one priority.
“I am determined to kickstart economic growth and deliver on that promise”, she added.
But the picture was not all bad.
Growth recorded in March was revised upwards, further indicating that companies invested to prepare for tariffs. Rather than GDP of 0.2%, the ONS said on Friday the figure was actually 0.4%.
It showed businesses moved forward activity to be ready for the extra taxes. Businesses were hit with higher employer national insurance contributions in April.
The expansion in March means the economy still grew when the three months are looked at together.
While an interest rate cut in August had already been expected, investors upped their bets of a 0.25 percentage point fall in the Bank of England’s base interest rate.
Such a cut would bring down the rate to 4% and make borrowing cheaper.
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Analysts from economic research firm Pantheon Macro said the data was not as bad as it looked.
“The size of the manufacturing drop looks erratic to us and should partly unwind… There are signs that GDP growth can rebound in June”, said Pantheon’s chief UK economist, Rob Wood.
Why did the economy shrink?
The drops in manufacturing came mostly due to slowed car-making, less oil and gas extraction and the pharmaceutical industry.
The fall was not larger because the services industry – the largest part of the economy – expanded, with law firms and computer programmers having a good month.
It made up for a “very weak” month for retailers, the ONS said.
Monthly Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures are volatile and, on their own, don’t tell us much.
However, the picture emerging a year since the election of the Labour government is not hugely comforting.
This is a government that promised to turbocharge economic growth, the key to improving livelihoods and the public finances. Instead, the economy is mainly flatlining.
Output shrank in May by 0.1%. That followed a 0.3% drop in April.
However, the subsequent data has shown us that much of that growth was artificial, with businesses racing to get orders out of the door to beat the possible introduction of tariffs. Property transactions were also brought forward to beat stamp duty changes.
In April, we experienced the hangover as orders and industrial output dropped. Services also struggled as demand for legal and conveyancing services dropped after the stamp duty changes.
Many of those distortions have now been smoothed out, but the manufacturing sector still struggled in May.
Signs of recovery
Manufacturing output fell by 1% in May, but more up-to-date data suggests the sector is recovering.
“We expect both cars and pharma output to improve as the UK-US trade deal comes into force and the volatility unwinds,” economists at Pantheon Macroeconomics said.
Meanwhile, the services sector eked out growth of 0.1%.
A 2.7% month-to-month fall in retail sales suppressed growth in the sector, but that should improve with hot weather likely to boost demand at restaurants and pubs.
Struggles ahead
It is unlikely, however, to massively shift the dial for the economy, the kind of shift the Labour government has promised and needs in order to give it some breathing room against its fiscal rules.
The economy remains fragile, and there are risks and traps lurking around the corner.
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Concerns that the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is considering tax hikes could weigh on consumer confidence, at a time when businesses are already scaling back hiring because of national insurance tax hikes.
Inflation is also expected to climb in the second half of the year, further weighing on consumers and businesses.