BRUSSELS – The Cotton Campaign has urged business leaders, textile machinery manufacturers, and fashion brands and retailers to cease all investments in Turkmenistan’s textile industry, amid concerns over what it calls the “systematic and widespread state-imposed forced labour” taking place across the country’s cotton industry.
The call from the global coalition, which campaigns to end forced labour for Central Asian cotton workers, comes as the Italian Trade Agency (ITA) and industry body, the Association of Italian Textile Machinery Manufacturers (ACIMIT), this week embarked on a commercial delegation visit to Turkmenistan to coincide with the annual EU-Turkmenistan ‘Human Rights Dialogue’.
