A house in Zrenjanin in November 2021, where Vietnamese workers were living in poor conditions, according to NGOs. Photo: A11/Sara Nikolic.
The United States on Thursday banned the import of car tyres made in Zrenjanin in Serbia by China’s Shandong Linglong Tire Co owing to suspicions that the company has used forced labour.
According to a US Customs and Border Protection press release, a ‘withhold release’ order was issued against tyres made in Zrenjanin, which means that it will detain shipments of these tyres “due to evidence reasonably indicating the use of forced labour in their production.
“The message is clear – the United States will not tolerate forced labour in supply chains,” Customs and Border Protection commissioner Rodney Scott is quoted as saying in the press release.
Acting assistant commissioner Susan Thomas of the Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Trade said in the same press release that “by preventing forced-labour goods from entering US commerce, CBP helps ensure American workers and businesses compete on a level playing field”.
In cooperation with the anti-trafficking organisation ASTRA and the Serbia-based Initiative for Economic and Social Rights, A11, BIRN has reported extensively since 2021 on the exploitation of Vietnamese and Indian workers at the Linglong site in Serbia, which is key to the Chinese company’s European ambitions.
The allegations included a raft of Labour Law violations, the confiscation of passports and cramped, dirty and unsanitary accommodation. Linglong has denied any wrongdoing.
CBP said that its order is a result of its own investigations into the use of forced labour in Linglong tyre production. It said it had analysed “worker statements, photographs, employment contracts, focus group field notes, text message screenshots, open-source non-government organisation reports, news media, and academic research.”
“Taken together, the evidence demonstrated that workers at Linglong are subject to nine International Labour Organization indicators of forced labour: retention of identity documents, intimidation and threats, isolation, excessive overtime, withholding of wages, debt bondage, abusive living and working conditions, deception, and abuse of vulnerability,” CBP said.
“The facts underlying these indicators show, by reasonable suspicion, that workers are engaged in forced labour (i.e., work performed involuntarily and under menace of penalty),” it added.
Serbia has also faced calls from the European Parliament and United Nations human rights rapporteurs to investigate allegations of exploitation.
Last December, the VW-Owned MAN Truck & Bus said it had stopped taking tyres from Linglong after reports alleging labour exploitation.
Construction of the Linglong factory began in 2019 as one of a number of Chinese projects in Serbia that have made the country a Balkan hub for Chinese investment.
