“Ghost Fleet follows a small group of activists who risk their lives on remote Indonesian islands to find justice and freedom for the enslaved fishermen who feed the world’s insatiable appetite for seafood. Bangkok-based Patima Tungpuchayakul, a Thai abolitionist, has committed her life to helping these “lost” men return home. Facing illness, death threats, corruption, and complacency, Patima’s fearless determination for justice inspires her nation and the world.”
“There’s part of me that thinks they don’t want to offend Beijing anymore.”
ZUMRETAY ARKIN of the World Uyghur Congress, on the International Olympic Committee’s refusal to discuss allegations of Olympic merchandise being made with forced labor in China.
Click here to read more on Zumretay Arkin and the 2022 Olympics.
US President Joe Biden has signed into law the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), preventing businesses importing goods into the US from China’s Xinjiang region, unless they can prove products were not made with forced labour.
The UFLPA signed on December 23, presumes that “all goods, wares, articles, and merchandise mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part in Xinjiang… shall not be entitled to entry at any of the ports of the United States”. Only businesses providing “clear and convincing evidence” that goods from the region were not made with forced labour may import from Xinjiang.
The US has previously used other methods, including export controls, withhold release orders (WROs) and an updated business advisory on Xinjiang, to put pressure on China over the alleged forced labour of Uyghur Muslims, an ethnic minority.
President Joe Biden signing Uyghur Forced Labor Act into law. Photo from Newsweek.
GETTY / PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY MIKE KIM
“Research also attests that I was a slave at the time. And I ain’t speaking hyperbolically or philosophically but literally and officially here.”
Oregon and 19 other states still use language from the 13th Amendment to govern working conditions for inmates—some of whom still pick actual cotton. The rules are changing, but not without resistance.
