A joint statement by Group of 7 leaders has urged China respect human rights and fundamental freedoms, particularly in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, where experts believe up to 1.8 million Uyghurs are being detained as part of a broader campaign of repression against Turkic Muslim ethnic minorities.

The G7 also pledged to eradicate forced labor, including the state-sponsored forced labor of vulnerable groups and minorities, in the agricultural, solar and garment sectors, which are the “main supply chains of concern” in Xinjiang.

The US Labor Department’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs estimates that 100,000 Uyghurs and other ethnic minority ex-detainees may be working under conditions of forced labor both within and outside Xinjiang. Many more” rural poor workers may also be coerced into job placements without detention under the guise of “poverty alleviation,” though the scheme only serves as a further means of control and isolation, it said.

Senator Marco Rubio urged lawmakers to pass the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act and ensure that goods being tainted by modern slavery do not enter the US market and make all Americans unwitting accomplices.