Uzbekistan: where mass forced labour continues

Right now, as in every Autumn, the Uzbek government is forcing hundreds of thousands of its citizens into the cotton fields to pick cotton. This is the largest State-run forced labour operation in the world.  Authorities threaten workers from across the public and private sectors with dismissal, criminal charges, extraordinary taxes and even violence if they fail to participate. 

Farmers are also forced to meet onerous cotton production targets. If they don't they risk having their lands confiscated.

Under this extreme pressure to produce cotton some Uzbek farmers have taken their own lives.

Uzbek cotton is allowed to be imported into the UK and other European countries.

With slavery having been abolished in the 19th century, you might think that goods, like Uzbek cotton, which are produced using modern slavery cannot be imported and sold in the UK. Not the case. Under European Union law, there is currently nothing to stop the proceeds of modern slavery from being sold anywhere in the EU.

Even worse, not only are the markets of the EU's 28 Member States wide-open to Uzbek cotton, the EU is actively encouraging their importation. It does this by lowering the import taxes which apply to cotton-goods coming from Uzbekistan (or in legal jargon, by giving them "preferential tariff treatment"). And, in fact, the EU has just opened talks with Uzbekistan about lowering this taxes even further.

This flies in the face of what experts say must be done to eradicate the scourge of forced labour. 

Why we're taking this case

The Global Legal Action Network and the Uzbek-German Forum for Human Rights have therefore teamed up to bring this case. We're bringing it in the UK because we know that shipments of Uzbek cotton are regularly clearing customs in the UK.

Our case is simple: goods known to be produced with forced labour cannot be legally imported into the UK or indeed the EU as a whole. If successful our case would stop the EU from encouraging trade in goods produced under conditions of modern slavery. This would be a major victory in the fight against forced labour, bearing in mind that there are over 148 goods from 76 countries known to be produced with forced labour. 

Our case is also designed to accelerate the recent effort to reduce the reliance on forced labour in Uzbekistan's cotton industry. 

The funding we seek to raise

We have just filed our case with the Administrative Court in London and are launching this campaign to enable us to take it all the way. The £10,000 which we aim to raise will go towards our court fees, travel costs, essential legal fees, and other related expenses.

Your support would be hugely appreciated.