Congress Should Fund Stronger Efforts to Block Imports Made With Forced Labor

Customs and Border Protection has issued 13 withhold release orders against imports from China since 2018 to stop goods produced with forced labor from entering the U.S. market.

Those orders largely focus on goods from the Xinjiang province, where millions of Uyghur Muslims face what the U.S. government identified as ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity.

During a House subcommittee’s hearing on July 21, witnesses said that despite the orders, more action was needed to combat forced labor in Xinjiang.

Neha Misra, the global lead for migration and human trafficking at the Solidarity Center, said at the hearing that Customs and Border Protection “should place more emphasis on self-initiated actions by the agency itself; issue more [withhold release orders] related to other countries and sectors; train staff on identifying indicators of forced labor; and focus on worker remediation measures and ensuring working agency in enforcement.”