British researchers say the world’s production of solar panels is being fuelled by forced labour from Uighur Muslims in the Chinese province of Xinjiang.
An investigation by Sheffield Hallam University says some 45% of the world’s supply of a key component in the panels – polysilicon – comes from Xinjiang and is obtained through a vast system of coercion involving the Uighur ethnic minority.
In Broad Daylight, the report from the university’s Helena Kennedy Centre for International Justice, says the world’s four biggest panel manufacturers use polysilicon tainted by forced labour, and urges producers to source the substance from elsewhere.