A coat bought from a UK clothing supplier came with a Chinese prisoner’s ID sewn into its lining, according to reports.
The coat was said to be from Brave Soul, a brand owned by Manchester-based wholesaler Whispering Smith.
It reportedly cost £49.99 from My Shoe Store, an online fast fashion retailer.
The woman who bought the coat, 24, from Norwich, told the Mirror: “This could be a call for help by a slave labourer.
“I work in the NHS and I do care that people are having the best kind of life.”
An Amnesty International spokesman said: “Companies have a responsibility to respect human rights during their operations in China and anywhere else in the world.
“Key to this is engaging in human rights due diligence to prevent the risk of negatively impacting people’s rights through their work, business relationships and within their value chains.
“We would also urge the UK government to considering making this due diligence mandatory for national companies operating abroad.”
Coat was from brand owned by wholesaler Whispering Smith
(Mirrorpix)
Labour Behind the Label, a campaign group for working conditions in the clothing industry, said: “Important questions now need to be asked of Whispering Smith.”
The group said companies must ensure their clothes “are not tainted with modern slavery”.
The Independent has contacted Whispering Smith for comment.
British companies have several times in recent years come under scrutiny for alleged links to forced labour in China.
Tesco ceased production at a Chinese factory in 2019 after a London schoolgirl found a message in a Christmas card produced there that claimed to have been written by a foreign prisoner in a Shanghai jail who had been forced into work. China denied that forced labour was ongoing at the jail.
In 2014, a Belfast woman claimed to have found a note in a pair of trousers from fast fashion giant Primark that alleged dangerous working conditions in a prison in Hubei province.
The note claimed to have been written by a prisoner in Xiang Nan prison who was forced to work for 15 hours a day. Amnesty International said the alleged conditions amounted to “slave labour”.
Chinese prison law states that labour is a necessary part of reforming criminals. Prisoners are expected to work for 8 hours a day but labour rights monitor China Labour Watch said they are often forced to work for much longer.
At least 1.7m people were in prison in China as of 2018, according to the latest data.
The University of London’s World Prison Brief, which collects data on prison populations, said the figure accounts only for sentenced prisoners and not other forms of detention, including Uighur Muslim camps in Xianjiang.
