A Prisoner’s Plea Found in a Saks Shopping Bag Highlights the Dark Role Forced Labor Continues to Play in the Global Economy

June 11, 2014 by admin

A June 3rd article in the New Yorker addressed the continuing role Chinese forced labor plays in the manufacture of many commonplace products sold around the world.

In September of 2012, Stephanie Wilson, a twenty-eight year-old Australian living in Harlem got more than she bargained for when she purchased a pair of Hunter rain boots from Saks Fifth Avenue. While searching for her receipt in the paper shopping bag she discovered a letter folded inside the bag. The hastily scribbled note began “HELP! HELP! HELP!” and contained a plea for assistance from a Cameroonian man by the name of Njong Emmanuel Tohnain being held in a forced labor camp. It later transpired that this was one of five letters he had written, both in English and French, attempting to communicate his plight to the outside world. Ms. Wilson contacted the Laogai Research Foundation.

After working with Serena Solomon, a reporter from the local-news Web site DNAinfo, to verify the letter, the Laogai Research Foundation found that Mr. Tohnain, who was released last year, was providing unpaid labor for a company called Elegant PrinPac, which exports shopping bags to the US. This case details only one instance of the many ways in which, despite legislation aimed at prevention, forced labor remains a key step in the manufacture of goods that find their ways into the homes of people all over the world, including US citizens. According to the New Yorker piece, Kevin Slaten, the program coordinator for the human-rights organization China Labor Watch, believes that many US corporations “have developed a convoluted system of contracting and subcontracting that is designed [to allow] them to plead ignorance” about unethical labor practices. Moving forward it is important the we continue to strive to hold corporations accountable for their practices overseas, so that we can ensure that no product comes at the price of human suffering.