…Public procurement is one of the European Union’s most powerful tools to shape market behavior and promote responsible business conduct. Representing nearly 15% of GDP, and almost €2 trillion annually, public authorities hold enormous influence to uphold human rights, fair labour practices, and environmental sustainability. This is especially crucial in high-risk industries such as textiles, where exploitation is widespread.

This report presents findings on labour conditions in Pakistan’s textile sector – which indirectly supplies the EU’s public sector, including Sweden’s healthcare system. As the sixth-largest cotton producer and a long-established textile exporter, Pakistan plays a vital role in supplying home and healthcare textiles. Yet behind its export success lies a troubling reality: workers frequently endure exploitative conditions, earning well below the legal minimum wage, often without contracts, social protection, or safe working environments. Testimonies gathered from Faisalabad and Karachi expose systemic abuses – excessive working hours, hazardous conditions, stark gender pay disparities, and retaliation against union activity. Social audits and certifications, relied upon by European buyers to ensure compliance, repeatedly fail to capture or remedy these violations, raising serious concerns about their efficacy.

These findings underscore that public procurement remains a largely untapped mechanism for promoting social standards among third-country suppliers to the public sector. On the contrary, they demonstrate a series of systemic shortcomings…