SHANGHAI — Tesco has halted production of Christmas cards at a factory in China after a British girl found a message from workers inside one of them.
The BBC reports that Florence Widdicombe found a note inside the card allegedly written by prisoners in Shanghai saying they were "forced to work against our will."
The message also said to, "please help us and notify rights organizations."
Tesco naturally said they were "shocked" and added, "we would never allow prison labor in our supply chain."
Well, then why are you guys having things made in China—the home of forced labor?
According to BBC, Florence was writing cards for her classmates when she found one that had already been written in.
In all capitals, the message said, "We are foreign prisoners in Shanghai Qingpu prison China. Forced to work against our will. Please help us and notify human rights organizations."
The message also asked anyone who found the message to contact British journalist Peter Humphrey who himself had also wasted time in Chinese prisons four years ago.
Tesco claims that it has a "comprehensive auditing system" to ensure suppliers are not using prison labor. Clearly it's not that comprehensive.
According to Tesco, the factory in question, Zhejiang Yunguang Printing, apparently was checked last month with no signs of prison labor. AKA—they didn't have the prisoners working on the day the Tesco people were COMPREHENSIVELY doing their checks.
Unfortunately for the prisoners, things will now probably just get worse for them as China clearly isn't going to stop using forced labor.
Merry Christmas everyone!!
