TAMIL NADU – The Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) and South Asian workers’ rights organisation Arisa have unearthed evidence of forced labour in India’s cotton supply network, implicating brands such as Tesco, Zeeman, Gap and WE Fashion.
Researchers interviewed 725 workers at cotton spinning mills in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu as part of their investigation, finding that staff “spend most of their life with the machines” while having “absolutely no contact with the outside world”.
A spokesperson for Tesco commented: “We take allegations of human rights abuses in our supply chain extremely seriously. While not a direct customer of this mill, we recognise our responsibility to everyone in our supply chain and are working alongside other brands and with SOMO to investigate and ensure improvements are made.”
