An NGO alliance has called in France for an investigation of four multinational clothing manufacturers, accusing them of profiting from forced labour of the Uighur minority in China...

The complaint targets the clothing giants Inditex, Uniqlo and SMCP, as well as footwear manufacturer Skechers, which it charged concealed forced labour and crimes against humanity in the production of the goods.

The complaint was filed by anti-corruption group Sherpa; the Ethique NGO, which is the French branch of the Clean Clothes Campaign; and the Uighur Institute of Europe, as well as an Uighur woman who had been held in a camp in Xinjiang in China...

They accused the four companies, as well as other entities, of continuing to market goods using cotton produced in the Xinjiang region and of thus being "complicit in the serious crimes committed there".

The statement said the complaint was the first in a number of such petitions that would be filed in European countries in the months ahead.