Thanks to a series of undercover investigations by the broadcaster CBC News that a Chinese apparel manufacturer Dandong Huayang Textiles and Garment Co. Ltd. was using forced North Korean labour, Reitmans a Canada-based apparel company, has cancelled a contract with this supplier.
Retail giant Reitmans has over 400 outlets in the Canada and it has announced that it will donate the unused clothing from the supplier to local charities.
A month-long CBC Marketplace investigation has found that Reitmans brought more than 100 shipments of clothing into Canada from this Chinese factory suspected of secretly using North Korean forced labour.
As per reports, US authorities blocked shipments from Dandong Huayang from entering American stores earlier this year on suspicion of forced labour.
Dandong Huayang Textiles and Garment Co. Ltd. has refuted the allegation of using ‘forced labour’.
As per reports, Reitmans is not the only brand to be involved with this Chinese supplier. YM Inc., which owns various other brands such as Sirens, Stitches and Bluenotes, also did business with the same factory. After the brands came to know about the forced labour scenario, YM said that it does not partner with anyone using forced labour.
In a statement Reitmans said that it decided to “proactively stop issuing new business purchase orders with this supplier” at the end of 2020 and also decided to “pull all remaining inventory” of the styles originating from this supplier.
“We are shaken by these new allegations about the presence of North Korean guest workers in what appears to be Dandong Huayang Textiles and Garments Ltd. factories,” it said.
The CBC report further claimed that it might violate 2017 UNSC sanctions that ban employment of North Koreans. This was done to prevent funding to Pyongyang’s illegal nuclear programmes.
As per reports, Dandong is located on the border of North Korea and China and it has a history of employing North Korean workers and therefore Dandong Huayang is no exception.
