Uyghur abuse hidden in cargo? Chinese flights to Europe raise human rights alarm

Tallinn [Estonia], August 1 (ANI): On May 21, a cargo flight carrying over 50 tonnes of e-commerce goods from Urumchi, capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, touched down in Tallinn, Estonia, after a brief stopover in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. According to a new analysis by the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP), this route marks the first of its kind, offering European Union importers a new, streamlined air freight corridor into a region where the Chinese government is accused of perpetrating atrocity crimes, including state-imposed forced labour.

The Tallinn route is just one of over 20 newly established cargo corridors from Urumchi to cities across Europe, the UK, and Switzerland, identified by UHRP in its analysis of cargo flight data between June 2024 and May 2025. These routes represent a rapid and troubling expansion of logistics connections between the Uyghur Region and Europe. UHRP reports that upwards of 40 flights now arrive weekly in Europe from Urumchi, enabling high-volume transfers of consumer goods such as clothing, electronics, LED lights, and speciality agricultural products, all potentially produced under forced labour conditions.

The implications are deeply concerning. Uyghurs, a Turkic, Muslim-majority people indigenous to East Turkistan, face an ongoing genocide at the hands of the Chinese state. Since 2017, 1.8 to 3 million Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples have been arbitrarily detained in internment camps and prisons. Survivors and human rights organisations describe a brutal system of surveillance, indoctrination, and forced labour under the guise of poverty alleviation and vocational training programs.

The arrival of the Urumchi-Tallinn flight is emblematic of a wider trend. According to UHRP, nine cargo airlines, including SF Airlines (China), European Cargo (UK), Titan Airways (UK), Camex (Georgia), and Uzbekistan Airways, operated new or expanded routes during the review period. These include direct flights into London, Budapest, Bucharest, Zurich, Bournemouth, and Cardiff, and indirect routes reaching Athens, Vienna, Debrecen, Leipzig, Liège, and more. Indirect routes often make stopovers in Tashkent, Istanbul, Astana, or Tbilisi.

In July 2025, Xinjiang Airport Group announced new upcoming routes to Paris and Madrid, aiming for 40 international cargo connections from Urumchi by the end of the year. UHRP data estimates that up to 2,000 tonnes of goods entered the EU, UK, and Switzerland in May 2025 alone via these air routes. These goods often move through opaque supply chains, making it nearly impossible to assess whether they are produced ethically.

The timing of this expansion raises alarms. In April 2024, the European Union adopted the EU Forced Labour Regulation, which bans the sale of goods made with forced labour in the EU. However, its key compliance provisions do not take effect until December 2027, leaving a multi-year enforcement gap. UHRP warns that without stronger border checks and political will, goods made with forced Uyghur labour could flood European markets unchecked.

The UK is already grappling with this reality. In January 2025, Lord David Alton sent a letter to the UK government urging an investigation into flights arriving in London, Bournemouth, and Cardiff. He cited fears that goods produced by Uyghur forced labour were entering Britain under the radar. The Home Office admitted that its Border Force does "not routinely assess" incoming cargo for forced labour content, as reported by Politico.

Public statements by Chinese state media further link these flights to e-commerce and export ambitions. A May 2025 article by Xinhua quoted a logistics executive praising the Tallinn route as a means for Chinese sellers to connect with Northern European e-commerce platforms. China Daily similarly hailed the Zurich route as an "extension of China's western development ethos into Europe's consciousness."

According to UHRP, the expansion of air routes is part of the broader "Air Silk Road" initiative, a key pillar of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Under this strategy, cities like Urumchi are being developed into global logistics hubs. From 2017 to 2024, the number of civilian airports in the Uyghur Region grew from 18 to 26, with projections for 33 by 2025. This aviation boom is paralleled by increases in rail traffic: more than 13,500 freight trains passed through major Uyghur Region rail ports in the first ten months of 2024.

But behind these booming logistics figures lies a devastating truth. As Chloe Cranston of Anti-Slavery International told Politico, "The UK should have no direct imports from the Uyghur region... we have to presume all products made in the Uyghur region, whether factory or farm, are very likely made with Uyghur forced labour."

UHRP's findings echo those of earlier investigations, including a 2023 report from Sheffield Hallam University, which documented apparel linked to forced Uyghur labour entering the EU through convoluted supply chains involving global brands. Despite increasing evidence and regulatory commitments, Europe continues to serve as a conduit for tainted goods.

UHRP concludes that the current trajectory, deepening commercial integration with a region under state terror, poses a grave challenge to the moral credibility of European trade. Unless governments act now to plug regulatory gaps and enforce labour due diligence at their borders, Europe risks embedding atrocity crimes into its economy by air, rail, and road. (ANI)

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