Tesco has suspended production at a Chinese factory after a six-year-old girl found a message in the supermarket’s charity Christmas cards alleging it was packed using forced labour.
The move came after the Sunday Times reported that Florence Widdicombe, a schoolgirl from south London, had opened her Tesco cards to find a cry for help from inmates in a China jail.
“We are foreign prisoners in Shanghai Qingpu prison. Forced to work against our will. Please help us and notify human rights organisation,” the handwritten note said.
The incident highlights some of the risks for big retailers sourcing low-cost products from suppliers in countries with weak human rights protections and opaque supply chains. Florence’s charity cards, decorated with Santa kittens, cost £1.50 a box.
Tesco said it was “shocked” by the allegations and had decided to suspend production at the factory that produced the cards, and withdraw the cards from sale, while an investigation took place.
“We abhor the use of prison labour and would never allow it in our supply chain,” the supermarket chain said, adding that the supplier was independently audited as recently as last month “and no evidence was found to suggest they had broken our rule banning the use of prison labour”.
Covert messages from Chinese prisoners have been discovered before in festive supermarket products.
Two years ago, a woman in Essex found a message in Chinese scrawled inside her J Sainsbury Snowy Penguin card. “Wishing you luck and happiness. Third Product Shop, Guangzhou Prison, Number 6 District,” the message said.
In 2012, Julie Keith of Oregon discovered a letter inside her Halloween decorations from Kmart claiming the mistreated prisoners packing the items were paid about $1 a month.
“People who work here have to work 15 hours a day without Saturday, Sunday break and any holidays,” read the message from Masanjia Labor Camp in Shenyang. “Otherwise, they will suffer torturement, beat and rude remark. Nearly no payment.”
The note found by Florence inside her Tesco card included a request to contact Peter Humphrey, a former journalist who spent time in the Qingpu prison after being caught up in the GlaxoSmithKline corruption scandal.
Florence’s father Ben initially “wondered if it was a prank” but eventually contacted Mr Humphrey, who took the story to the Sunday Times.
Amnesty International warns that forced labour remains common in Chinese prisons. Mr Humphrey argued that safeguard measures taken by retailers were unlikely to uncover problems in the supply chain.
“The daunting reality is that China’s prisons are closed to independent auditors who have little chance of unravelling the secretive business arrangements that have turned the jail system into a lucrative profit centre for the Chinese state,” he wrote.
From the sale of the Christmas cards Tesco donates £300,000 a year that is shared by three charities: the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK and Diabetes UK.
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December 22, 2019 at 10:09PM
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Tesco pulls Christmas cards over China forced labour claim - Financial Times
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