"Tesco halts production at Chinese factory over alleged 'forced' labour", 22 December 2019

Tesco has suspended production of charity Christmas cards at a factory in China after a six-year-old girl found a message from workers inside one.

The note... was allegedly written by prisoners in Shanghai claiming they were "forced to work against our will". "Please help us and notify human rights organisation,"...

Tesco... said it would de-list the supplier of the cards, Zhejiang Yunguang Printing, if it was found to have used prison labour... [A] spokeswoman said: "We were shocked by these allegations and immediately halted production at the factory... and launched an investigation."... The factory in question was checked only last month and no evidence of it breaking the ban on prison labour was found...

The message in the card urged the recipient to contact [journalist] Peter Humphrey, who was formerly imprisoned at Qingpu.... Mr Humphrey... then contacted ex-prisoners who confirmed inmates had been forced to work...