London: Supermarket giant Tesco said on Sunday it has stopped production at a factory in China after one of its Christmas cards was found to contain a cry for help from a prisoner who made it.
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The Sunday Times newspaper reported that a girl in south London had opened a card last weekend to find a message inside claiming to be from inmates at Shanghai’s Qingpu Prison.
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“We are foreign prisoners in Shanghai Qingpu Prison China,” said the message, in a Tesco charity card featuring a kitten in a Santa hat.
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“Forced to work against our will. Please help us and notify human rights organisation.”
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A spokeswoman for Tesco, Britain’s biggest retailer, said it was “shocked” at the news and had “immediately halted production at the factory where these cards are produced”.
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“We would never allow prison labour in our supply chain,” she said, adding that an investigation had now been launched.
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She said the company had a “comprehensive auditing system in place”.
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“This supplier was independently audited as recently as last month and no evidence was found to suggest they had broken our rule banning the use of prison labour,” she said.
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“If evidence is found we will permanently de-list the supplier.”
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According to the Sunday Times, the note in the card – sold to raise money for charity – asked whoever received it to contact “Mr Peter Humphrey”.
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The girl’s father searched for Humphrey online and discovered that he was a former journalist who had spent two years in Qingpu.
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He got in touch with Humphrey, who contacted some other ex-prisoners, who confirmed that foreign inmates had been backing cards for Tesco.
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Humphrey then wrote up the story for The Times.
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Humphrey and his wife Yu Yingzeng, a naturalised US citizen, ran an investigative firm hired by pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
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Arrested in 2013 on suspicion of illegally obtaining private data, he confessed on Chinese state TV but later claimed he was forced to.
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He and his wife were convicted in August 2014 and deported the following June.
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The Morning and Evening Brief###
The Morning and Evening Brief