XINJIANG - The Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) is pulling out of the Xinjiang region of China, where a fifth of its 'better cotton' was produced, over sustained allegations of forced labour and other human rights abuses.
It follows an external review of cotton sourcing in Xinjiang, commissioned by the BCI, which was tasked with producing recommendations to improve the organisation's ability to identify, prevent, mitigate and remediate forced labour risks.
The BCI has announced that it is ceasing all field-level activities in the region where up to 1.8 million Uyghur Muslims, and other ethnic minorities, are being held in what has been described as the largest mass incarceration of people since World War II.
