13-tonne shipment of human hair, said to be originating from China, seized
Uyghur Muslims
A 13-tonne shipment of beauty products suspected to have been made out of human hair was seized on Wednesday by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at the Port of New York/Newark. The products were worth over $8,00,000.
According to the CPB, the shipment might have come from Xinjiang, China, signalling potential human rights abuses of forced labour and imprisonment. Xinjiang is an autonomous rural region in the northwest of China and home to roughly 11 million Uyghurs, a predominantly Muslim ethnic minority with a distinct culture and language.
The US State Department estimates that over one million Uyghurs have been detained in a massive network of internment camps in Xinjiang, where they are reportedly "subjected to torture, cruel and inhumane treatment such as physical and sexual abuse, forced labor, and death."
This is the second time this year that the CBP has seized products from China suspected to have been made from prisoner's hair.
China has faced international scrutiny for its treatment of the Uyghurs, and in June, Trump signed a bill into law that aimed to punish Beijing for its repression of the ethnic minority.