Human rights campaigners are urging US authorities to ban all imports of cotton from the Chinese province of Xingjiang after allegations of widespread forced labor. The campaigners have filed two identical petitions with US Custom and Border Protection, citing substantial evidence that the Uighur community and other minority groups are being forced to work in the region’s cotton fields.

Rahima Mahmut, Spokeswoman, World Uighur Congress, one of the campaign groups spearheading the petitions, hopes the economic impact of a ban could cause Beijing to rethink its prison labor policy. Since 2017, more than a million Uighur Muslims have been moved to high-security de-extremification camps, where they are forced to produce industrial and agricultural goods for export, campaign groups maintain.

In April, Global Legal Action Network (Glan), co-sponsor of one of the petitions, submitted a 57-page petition to HM Revenue & Customs in the UK requesting a similar ban. In a separate attempt to pressurize the UK government, the World Uighur Congress plans to launch a nationwide campaign later this month.

The campaign will call for a public boycott of any products produced by Uighur forced labor or by companies facilitating Uighur suppression. It will also call on companies importing cotton and other goods from Xinjiang to investigate their supply chains.

In July, a coalition of more than 180 campaign groups issued a similar call to action urging high-street brands to guarantee that their supply chains are not directly or indirectly linked to abuses of Uighurs or other persecuted minorities in China.

The Better Cotton Initiative, which runs a sustainable certification system for cotton producers, reported earlier in the year that it was concerned about reports of forced labor in China and has commissioned a third-party investigation into the claims.