- Title: Tesco suspends Chinese supplier after prisoner labor report
- Date: 22nd December 2019
- Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (FILE - OCTOBER 13, 2016) (REUTERS) VARIOUS EXTERIORS OF TESCO SUPERMARKET BUILDING AND SIGNS TESCO EXPRESS SIGN
- Embargoed: 5th January 2020 15:44
- Keywords: China Tesco card christmas card forced labour girls found card human rights violations prisoners forced to work
- Location: LONDON AND GATWICK ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM / SHANGHAI, CHINA / INTERNET
- City: LONDON AND GATWICK ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM / SHANGHAI, CHINA / INTERNET
- Country: Various
- Topics: Fundamental Rights/Civil Liberties,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA005BB23OEF
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: British supermarket giant Tesco suspended a Chinese supplier of Christmas cards on Sunday (December 22) after a press report said a customer found a message written inside a card saying it had been packed by foreign prisoners who were victims of forced labour.
"We abhor the use of prison labour and would never allow it in our supply chain," a statement released by Tesco read. "We were shocked by these allegations and immediately suspended the factory where these cards are produced and launched an investigation. We have also withdrawn these cards from sale whilst we investigate."
Tesco, Britain's biggest retailer, donates 300,000 pounds ($390,000) a year from the sale of the cards to the charities British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK and Diabetes UK.
The message inside the card reads: "We are foreign prisoners in Shanghai Qingpu Prison China. Forced to work against our will. Please help us and notify human rights organization. Use the link to contact Mr Peter Humphrey."
Peter Humphrey is a British former journalist and corporate fraud investigator. Humphrey and his American wife Yu Yingzeng were both sentenced in China in 2014 for illegally obtaining private records of Chinese citizens and selling the information to clients including drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline. The couple were deported from China in June 2015 after their jail terms were reduced.
The message inside the card was found by a 6-year-old girl, Florence Widdicombe, in London. Her father contacted Humphrey via the LinkedIn social network.
Humphrey, who originally said he did not know the identities or the nationalities of the prisoners who put the note into the card, said in an interview he thinks he knows who wrote the note but "will never disclose that name."
The cards were produced at the Zheijiang Yunguang Printing factory, which is about 100 km (60 miles) from Shanghai Qingpu prison, Tesco said.
The company, which prints cards and books for food and pharmaceutical companies, says on its website it supplies Tesco.
(Production: Chiara Rodriquez) - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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