In Russia, a man found a note in new shoes asking for help

Petersburg resident Arslan Gibadullin said that he found a note from the prisoner Uyghur from China in the The North Face brand sneakers ordered on the Internet with a request for help. According to human rights activists, representatives of this people are being persecuted in the Xinjiang region of China: they are imprisoned and forced to work in factories. The publication told about this in more detail. paper paper.

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The North Face says it did not use forced labor to make shoes, but has launched an internal investigation. At the same time, in the UK, the company, along with other well-known brands, is being tested for cooperation with factories where Uyghurs work.

A resident of St. Petersburg Arslan Gibadullin said that he found a note asking for help in The North Face sneakers ordered from an online store. The note says: “Help. I'm in a prison in China. Please, help. Uigur".

According to the St. Petersburg resident, he ordered sneakers in the online store "Traektoria", and picked them up independently from the warehouse of the logistics company EMCK on November 12. Arslan clarified that the sneakers were in the package of postal delivery, and a sticker note was glued to the top of the right sneaker.

On the official Instagram of the Russian The North Face, Gibadullin was told: “This is spam. Do not pay attention. Thank you for your message, ”but later deleted the comment. In the online store "Trajectory" Gibadullin was told that orders are received in boxes or packages. The EMSK responded the same, advising to contact the police.

Arslan himself believes that the incident should be made public, regardless of whether it is a real note or a joke.

The North Face says it did not use forced labor to make shoes. The company launched an internal investigation.

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The North Face sent an official response to Arslan Gibadullin. It states that The North Face does not use forced labor to make shoes.

“We can assure you that we do not use forced labor in the production of any of our products and that no prison labor was used in the production of the shoes you purchased. The shoes in the photographs provided have never been in China,” said Inna Rubanova, regional manager of The North Face.

At the same time, the company added that they were serious about the situation and began an internal investigation. The North Face was asked to send them the shoes, original packaging, sales receipts and a note. They promised to replace the sneakers with a new pair. Gibadullin himself has not yet decided whether he will comply with the request, since, according to him, he was embarrassed by the answer.

According to Inna Rubanova, the shoes purchased by Arslan were produced in Vietnam and sent directly to the company's plant in Belgium, and then to a distribution center in Russia, from where the sneakers were delivered to Traektoria. The shoebox says that the manufacturer is VF International SAGL, registered in Switzerland.

In the UK, The North Face and other brands are testing the use of Uyghur prison labor.

On November 5, 2020, the UK Parliament held a hearing to determine whether large companies operating in the country are using forced labor by Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang.

According to Just Style, The North Face, Adidas, Amazon, Boohoo, H&M, IKEA, Nike, Puma and others were asked to provide evidence of innocence. The publication notes that companies are subject to direct verification of supply chains, as roughly one in five cotton garments sold worldwide contain materials from Xinjiang. Most brands deny the use of forced labor.

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The investigation began after the Australian Institute for Strategic Policy released a report in February 2020 on the use of forced labor by Uyghurs in the production of large brands. According to the institute, prisoners are sent to factories in the supply chains of at least 82 global brands, including the garment industry.

The report specifically mentioned The North Face. However, in July, the brand was removed from the list, "given that the company severed ties to the Chinese factory before the evidence suggests Uyghur workers were sent there," the institute wrote.

Uyghurs in China are sent to prisons and camps. Human rights activists call this repression.

The Uyghurs are a Turkic people, the majority of which (about 10 million people) live in Xinjiang, China. They are mostly Sunni Muslim.

From 2017 to 2020, the world media and human rights activists wrote en masse about the repression of the Uyghurs by the Chinese authorities. Representatives of the people are sent to prisons for various groundless reasons, including "for religious extremism."

According to the Australian Institute for Strategic Policy, by 2020, more than 1 million Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim minorities are in "re-education camps." There they are subjected to political indoctrination, forced to renounce religion and culture, and some are tortured, human rights activists say.

The Australian Institute writes that sending Uyghurs to factories for forced labor is probably one of the "re-education" steps. In total, the institute identified 27 factories in nine provinces in China.

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