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Volkswagen’s audit of its joint venture plant in Xinjiang — where human rights groups accuse it of using Uyghur forced labor — contains flaws that make it unreliable, said an expert who obtained a copy of the audit.
This is an analysis of an independent but non-public report requested by Volkswagen following criticism over its continued presence in Xinjiang, a region witnessing mass arbitrary detention and mass forced labor.
Experts on the region cast doubt on the results, saying official documents show Uyghur detainees from re-education camps were funneled to the factory.
Many consultancy and due diligence firms in China refuse to audit in Xinjiang because of heightened difficulty of getting reliable reports there, raising questions on how reliable the outcome will be.
Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes-Benz were accused of providing insufficient proof that their efforts to track their suppliers in Xinjiang, China, complied with Germany's new supply chain law.
This report is the result of a six-month investigation analysing publicly available documents, which revealed massive and expanding links between western car brands and Uyghur abuses.
(First published 1 March 2020) The Chinese government has facilitated the mass transfer of Uyghur and other ethnic minority citizens from the far west region of Xinjiang to factories across the country. Under conditions that strongly suggest forced labour, Uyghurs are working in factories that are in the supply chains of at least 82 well-known global brands in the technology, clothing and automotive sectors, including Apple, BMW, Gap, Huawei, Nike, Samsung, Sony and Volkswagen.
German companies will likely have to end their business activities in China's western region of Xinjiang or face fines under new supply chain rules targeting human rights violations committed against the Muslim Uyghur minority, according to a Bundestag research paper.
The VW Group has once again defended its business in the Chinese province of Xinjiang, despite reports of human rights violations. “We stand by our commitment in China, also in Xinjiang," said CEO Herbert Diess. "The presence of the company contributes more to improving the situation for people than turning them away”.