The global production of solar panels is using forced labour from China's Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang province, an investigation has found. Xinjia

According to a report, solar panels are manufactured in China using forced labor from Uyghurs.

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2021-05-15 08:29:44

The global production of solar panels is using forced labour from China's Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang province, an investigation has found.

Xinjiang produces about 45% of the world's supply of the key component, polysilicon, the research by the UK's Sheffield Hallam University says.

Polysilicon is extracted from mined quartz, and the research says the world's four biggest manufacturers use materials tainted by a massive system of coercion.

"The [Chinese] government claims that these programmes are in accordance with PRC [the People's Republic of China] law and that workers are engaged voluntarily, in a concerted government-supported effort to alleviate poverty," the report says.

"However, significant evidence - largely drawn from government and corporate sources - reveals that labour transfers are deployed in the Uyghur Region within an environment of unprecedented coercion, undergirded by the constant threat of re-education and internment."

China is facing mounting criticism from around the world over its treatment of the mostly Muslim Uyghur population in the north-western Xinjiang autonomous region.

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