U.S. bans imports from 3 more Chinese companies over forced labor

June 11 (UPI) -- The Biden administration Tuesday banned imports from three more Chinese companies in a continued crack down on the use of forced labor of Asia's minority populations in America's supply chain.

The Department of Homeland Security "will not tolerate forced labor in U.S. supply chains and will enforce our laws across all industries and sectors," Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Tuesday in a statement .

The three companies in China named by the Department of Homeland Security produce seafood, aluminum and footwear goods. DHS said those three industries play an important role in Xinjiang's economy.

"We will continue to investigate companies that use or facilitate forced labor and will hold those entities responsible," Mayorkas said while urging stakeholders across industry, civil society and international partners "to work with us to eliminate the scourge of forced labor."

The call was made by the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force, chaired by DHS, which is comprised of the federal departments of commerce, justice, labor, state and treasury. The office of the U.S. Trade Representative also sits on the task force.

They now join 68 other Chinese companies put on the Uygur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List . U.S. Customs and Border Protection will stop their goods from entering the United States over allegations of using or facilitating forced labor of members of the Uyghur population, including the Kazakh and Kyrgyz people, from the Xinjiang region in northwestern China.

The United States, which has already taken similar actions , has accused China of committing genocide against its Uyghur Muslim population in the northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, where Beijing is estimated to have interned about a million of them in concentration camps since 2017.

Shandong Meijia Group Co., Ltd., also known as Rizhao Meijia Group, is based in Shandong Province. They process, sell and export frozen seafood products, vegetables and other quick-frozen convenience food.

Shrimp supply chains have shown "a disturbing pattern of profiting off of the globe's most vulnerable populations," according to John Williams , the Florida-based Southern Shrimp Alliance's executive director.

In a news release , the Southern Shrimp Alliance called Tuesday's move a "groundbreaking announcement."

As an example, Argentinian red shrimp packed by Uyghurs in Chinese seafood processing plants "should not be competing with wholesome products in American grocery stores," Williams said.

The United States claims the seafood company took part in a Chinese government-sponsored labor transfer program to move and deliver Uyghur people, and individuals from other persecuted minority groups, out of the Xinjiang region for labor at its factory in Shandong.

Williams said the task force's effort to counter forced labor in seafood supply chains "sends a strong message" to U.S. seafood importers "that chasing lower costs and higher margins cannot replace ethical and legal obligations."

Dongguan Oasis Shoes Co., Ltd., also doing business as three other "Dongguan" styled companies, is headquartered in Guangdong Province and manufactures shoe and shoe material goods.

It is alleged Dongguan cooperated with the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps to recruit, transfer and receive people of persecuted minority groups, including Uyghurs, out of the Xinjiang region to a Guangdong factory near China's southeastern coast.

Xinjiang Shenhuo Coal and Electricity Co., Ltd. is a Xinjiang-based company that produces electrolytic aluminum, graphite carbon and prebaked anodes.

It was alleged the company likewise took part in a Chinese government-lead labor transfer program to similarly recruit, move and deliver minority citizens groups out of the region for forced labor.

An independent British tribunal said in 2021 in a 63-page report that Beijing subjected the Uyghur people to "unconscionable cruelty" and crimes against humanity in actions that amounted to genocide, it concluded.

The bipartisan Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act -- signed December 2021 by President Joe Biden -- bans the import of goods from the region over alleged human rights abuses against the Muslim Uyghur population, unless the importer proves goods are not made with forced labor. It also imposes sanctions on foreign individuals who make use of forced labor.

Sen. Marco Rubio , R-Fla, a co-sponsor of the bill, described the law signed by Biden at the time as the "most important and impactful action taken thus far by the United States to hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable for their use of slave labor."

According to the Uyghur Human Rights Project, a Washington-based research and advocacy group, 1 in 26 Uyghurs and non-Han people in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in northwest China were incarcerated in 2022 representing roughly 449,000 people.

While the Uyghur and non-Han population in Xinjiang made up only 1% of China's overall population, the ethnic minority in the Uyghur Region account for 34% of China's estimated prison population, according to the report.