Human Trafficking
September 24, 2024
(Washington)—Four Commissioners from the bipartisan and bicameral Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) today released a letter to the trade representatives of the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, urging robust implementation of existing forced labor import prohibitions in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) and asking for greater cooperation to prevent goods denied in one country being re-exported to another within the USMCA.
(Washington)—A bipartisan group of Commissioners from the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) released a letter today asking the State Department to utilize existing rewards programs to seek information that will “deter and disrupt the market for illegally procured organs…and hold accountable those responsible for the gruesome practice” of forced organ harvesting in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). CECC Chair Representative Christopher Smith (R-NJ) was joined by CECC Ranking Member Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Representatives Jennifer Wexton (D-VA), Michelle Steel (R-CA), Zach Nunn (R-IA) and Ryan Zinke (R-MT).
The issue of the systematic, widespread, and nonconsensual removal of human organs for transplantation, or “organ harvesting,” in the People’s Republic of China (PRC or China) is a global concern that has grown since the publication of the final judgment of the Independent Tribunal into Forced Organ Harvesting from Prisoners of Conscience in China in 2020.
(Washington)—Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), the Chair and Co-chair, respectively, of the bipartisan and bicameral Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), held a hearing this week examining the issue of forced organ harvesting in China and how medical associations, businesses, and U.S. state legislatures are grappling with the legal, ethical, and human rights concerns associated with this issue.
Forced labor in China taints the world’s seafood supply chain. PRC-based companies that use the forced labor of Uyghurs and North Koreans process a large amount of seafood for the U.S. market. From fish sticks to calamari—these products end up in the supply chains of major restaurants and wholesalers and in the lunches served at American schools and military bases. Recently published reports by The Outlaw Ocean Project detail how forced labor is rampant in China’s seafood industry, including modern slavery on China’s illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing fleet, and in processing plants located in Shandong province of China—where Uyghurs are employed in labor transfer projects.