US seizes items thought to be made from hair of Muslims in Chinese labor camps

US federal authorities have seized a shipment of
products made from human hair believed to have been taken from Muslims in labor
camps in China’s western Xinjiang province.
Customs and Border Protection officials said that 13
tons (11.8 metric tonnes) of weaves and other hair products worth an estimated
$800,000 were in the shipment.
“The production of these goods constitutes a very
serious human rights violation, and the detention order is intended to send a
clear and direct message to all entities seeking to do business with the United
States that illicit and inhumane practices will not be tolerated in US supply
chains,” said Brenda Smith, executive assistant commissioner of CBP’s office of
trade.
This is the second time this year that CBP has
slapped a rare detention order on shipments of hair products from China, based
on suspicions that people making them face human rights abuses.
Rushan Abbas, a Uighur American activist whose
sister went missing in China almost two years ago and is believed to be locked
in a detention camp, said women who use hair weaves should think about who
might be making them.
“This is so heartbreaking for us,” she said. “I want
people to think about the slavery people are experiencing today. My sister is
sitting somewhere being forced to make what, hair pieces?”
Wednesday’s shipment was made by Lop County Meixin
Hair Product Co Ltd. In May, a similar detention was placed on Hetian Haolin
Hair Accessories Co Ltd, although those weaves were synthetic, not human, the
agency said.
Both of the exporters are in China’s far west
Xinjiang region, where, over the past four years, the government has detained
an estimated 1 million or more ethnic Turkic minorities.
Detainees are held in internment camps and prisons
where they are subjected to ideological discipline, forced to denounce their
religion and language and physically abused. China has long suspected the
Uighurs, who are mostly Muslim, of harboring separatist tendencies because of
their distinct culture, language and religion.
Reports by the AP and other news organizations have
repeatedly found that people inside the internment camps and prisons, which
activists call “black factories”, are making sportswear and other clothing for
popular US brands.
The Chinese ministry of affairs has said there is no
forced labor, nor detention of ethnic minorities.
Xinjiang authorities announced in December that the
camps had closed and all the detainees had “graduated”, a claim difficult to
corroborate independently given tight surveillance and restrictions on
reporting in the region.
Some Uighurs and Kazakhs have told the AP that their
relatives have been released, but many others say their loved ones remain in
detention, were sentenced to prison or were transferred to forced labor in
factories.