A new rail freight service for the import of agricultural product was recently established from Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in northwestern China to the Italian city of Salerno, near Naples. However, various non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are saying that some of the cargo coming from the Chinese region may be the “product of forced labour”.
The Uyghur Human Rights Project, the Uyghur American Association and Safeguard Defenders sent a letter to the Italian ambassador in the United States, asking for an investigation to be open. “We urge the Italian government to take immediate action to investigate the origin of the goods arriving in Salerno and to implement measures to prevent the import of products produced by forced labor”, the letter stated.
Contradicting Meloni’s statements?
The condition of Uyghur people, a Muslim minority in China, was one of the main reasons behind Italy leaving the Belt and Road Initiative at the end of last year, the country’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni often underlined. However, the brand-new service between Salerno and Urumqi seems to contradict this stance. The main concern, according to the three NGOs, is that the train was filled with agricultural products from the Uyghur region, which are likely to be made through forced labour.
Other than the ethical side of this issue, i.e. the exploitation of Uyghur workers, importing such products might hinder the stability of the Italian agricultural economy. Already last August, Italian industry associations claimed that the import of tomatoes from the Uyghur region is 50 per cent cheaper than producing them in Italy. The astonishing difference in price is, of course, related to the working conditions under which Uyghurs are kept.
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