(WASHINGTON, D.C., 12/9/21) – The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today welcomed the U.S. House of Representatives’ Wednesday night 428-1 adoption of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (S.65/H.R.1155).
Already adopted by the U.S. Senate in July, the act would prohibit the importation of goods made with forced labor in China’s Uyghur Region by Uyghur Muslims and other Turkic ethnic minorities.
For the act to become law, either the House or Senate would need to adopt the other chamber’s approved version of the law or reconcile the minor differences in a conference committee.
In a statement CAIR Director of Government Affairs Department Robert McCaw said:
“CAIR welcomes the House’s adoption of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act and calls on Congress to swiftly pass the act into law. The government of China is carrying out an ongoing campaign of brutal of genocide and forced labor that has imprisoned, tortured, sterilized, sexually abused, or enslaved more than two million Uyghur Muslims and other Turkic minorities.
“Hundreds of American corporations and thousands of international businesses are possibly benefiting from Uyghur Muslim slave labor. The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act would hand the U.S. government an immediate tool to confront China’s deplorable use of forced slave labor. Congress must pass this act now, and President Biden needs to sign it into law without delay.”
Introduced by Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) with bipartisan support from Senator Jeff Merkely (D-OR), the bipartisan Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (S.65/H.R.1155) prohibits the importation of goods made with forced labor in China’s Uyghur Region by Uyghur Muslims and other Turkic ethnic minorities.
The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act would create a “rebuttable presumption” that any goods made in the Xinjiang are made with forced labor and prohibited from entering the United States unless “clear and convincing” evidence is shown to the contrary.
The legislation would:
- Prohibit all imports from the Uyghur Region of China unless the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection can certify that the goods being imported to the U.S. are not produced, either wholly or in part, with forced labor and the Commissioner submits to Congress a report outlining such a determination;
- Authorize the President to apply targeted sanctions on anyone responsible for the labor trafficking of Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities;
- Require financial disclosures from U.S. publicly traded businesses about their engagement with Chinese companies and other entities engaged in mass surveillance, mass interment, forced labor and other serious human rights abuses in the Uyghur Region;
- Directs the Secretary of State to submit to Congress a public determination whether the practice of forced labor or other human rights abuses targeting Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in the Uyghur Region constitute crimes against humanity or genocide, and directs the Secretary to develop a diplomatic strategy to address forced labor in the Uyghur Region; and
- Require a strategy report from the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force (established by the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement Implementation Act) and regular updates on the steps taken to enforce the import prohibition on forced labor made goods from the Uyghur Region.
CAIR’s mission is to enhance understanding of Islam, protect civil rights, promote justice, and empower American Muslims.
La misión de CAIR es proteger las libertades civiles, mejorar la comprensión del Islam, promover la justicia, y empoderar a los musulmanes en los Estados Unidos.
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CONTACT: CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw, 202-742-6448, rmccaw@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, ihooper@cair.com