Amazon
In March 2020, Amazon was named in ASPI’s report as one of at least 82 global brands whose supply chains were highly likely to contain Uyghur forced labour. ASPI’s report identified Amazon as a strategic partner of O-Film Technology, a company with ties to Uyghur forced labour and labour transfers. Amazon did not respond to the report’s findings.
In February 2021, United States senators issued Amazon’s Chief Executive Jeff Bezos a letter of concern over a reported contract with Dahua, a Chinese security camera company that indicated it has the ability to alert police when its facial recognition software identifies members of the Uyghur ethnic group. According to a Reuters report in April 2020, Dahua sold 1,500 thermal imaging cameras to Amazon in a deal estimated to be worth close to $10 million. Amazon declined to confirm its purchase from Dahua, but said its hardware complied with national, state and local law, and its temperature checks were to “support the health and safety of our employees, who continue to provide a critical service in our communities.”
Amazon was also identified in a report from the Helen Kennedy Centre (HKC), published in November 2021, as one of many international brands whose supply chains were linked to textile companies known to source cotton from Xinjiang, who also own subsidiaries documented to have employed state-sponsored labour transfers.
In response to the HKC report, Amazon said, “Amazon complies with the laws and regulations in all jurisdictions in which it operates. Amazon expects all products sold in the Amazon Stores to be manufactured and produced in accordance with our Supply Chain Standards. Whenever we find or receive proof of forced labor, we take action and remove that product and may suspend privileges to sell.”
In March 2022, a report from the Tech Transparency Project (TTP) identified five companies on Amazon’s supplier list that have been publicly denounced for being “directly or indirectly” connected to the forced labor of China’s Uyghur population in the Xinjiang region. Amazon’s suppliers are responsible for making Amazon-branded products, such as the Echo, Fire TV, Kindle, the wide range of affordable products sold as part of its Amazon Basics line, and more.
In a statement to *The Verge,* Amazon spokesperson Erika Reynoso said, “We take allegations of human rights abuses seriously, including those related to the use or export of forced labor. Whenever we find or receive proof of forced labor, we take action.”