17 October 2019

Cotton On and Target Australia have stopped sourcing cotton from China's Xinjiang province due to concerns about mass human rights abuses there...

Cotton On Group completed an internal investigation into its supply chain after Four Corners revealed in July that Uyghur Muslims were being rounded up as part of a detention program and forced to work in textile factories in Xinjiang.

[...]

Jeanswest said that an internal investigation in the wake of the Four Corners report found "no evidence that any of our cotton comes from this region".

Cotton On...confirmed that last year that a Cotton On staff member visited the Litai Textiles factory, which is located just 6 kilometres away from a massive re-education camp.

Cotton On said it no longer sourced from Litai Textiles and that it was "absolutely committed to having an ethical supply chain".

...Target Australia said it has now "made the decision to stop orders from that mill".

International brand H&M also works with Huafu but has said that the yarn sourced from the company comes from a facility outside Xinjiang province.

The company told Four Corners that it also requested access to Huafu's spinning facilities inside the province and their investigations "showed no evidence of forced labour".

[...]