The Uyghur Act or UFLPA states that “all goods, wares, articles, and merchandise mined, produced, or manufactured wholly or in part in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (Xinjiang) of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), or by entities identified by the US government on the UFLPA Entity List, are presumed to be made with forced labour and are prohibited from entry into the United States.”

As part of US Customs and Border Protection’s efforts to make the enforcement of UFLPA more transparent, an interactive dashboard detailing statistics was launched in March this year.

The dashboard is a highly interactive tool allowing users to select specific views for greater details of shipments stopped by CBP under UFLPA. 

Credit: US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act enforcement statistics.

Overview of recent statistics

  • The number of shipments denied in the third quarter of 2023 was 42, or 6%, of the total shipments by count as opposed to 202, or 19%, of the total shipments by count in the second quarter.
  • Out of shipments denied in both the second and third quarters, apparel, footwear and textiles accounted for the third-highest share in terms of shipment count by industry.
  • To date, apparel, footwear and textile have accounted for $31.78m worth of shipments in value or 753 in numbers. Out of which 194 were released, 330 denied and 231 remain pending.
  • Malaysia accounts for the highest shipment value till now, amounting to $834.77m, followed by Vietnam ($388.71m), China ($161.10m), Thailand ($6.93m), all other locations ($2.08m) and then Sri Lanka ($1.64m).

Businesses and brands are being called to redouble efforts continually for detecting forced labour in their operations and extended supply chains after a report from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) confirmed crimes against humanity are taking place in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) of China.