Tesco has delisted the Chinese supplier accused of using forced prison labour in manufacturing its Christmas cards.
A cry for help from inmates at a Chinese prison was discovered in December after a 6-year-old girl in London found a note in a card she bought to send to friends.
“We are foreign prisoners in Shanghai Qingpu prison China. Forced to work against our will. Please help us and notify human rights organisation,” it said, according to The Sunday Times.
Tesco immediately suspended the Chinese factory producing the cards and launched an investigation into the allegations. It did not find any evidence of forced prison labour, The Grocer understands, but discovered some inconsistencies such as poor record-keeping, and had therefore decided not use the supplier again.
The note had urged the finder to contact Peter Humphrey, a British journalist and former fraud investigator who was imprisoned at the same Qingpu prison where the cards were reportedly made.
He warned similar incidents would continue to occur unless supermarkets stopped purchasing cheap goods from China entirely.
“The presence of commercial enterprises in Chinese prisons is prolific,” he told The Grocer. “Unless Tesco moves their manufacturing of low-margin commercial elsewhere then this problem will happen again and again.”
Tesco stressed in December that it ”abhored” the use of prison labour and had a “comprehensive auditing system in place” for its suppliers in China.
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