Tell Gymboree & Abercrombie to Stop Forced Child Labor

Please take time to sign this petition. It is sad to know that most of the Cotton picked in Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan is the second largest producer of cotton in the world. Too many U.S based companies use the cotton produced in Uzbekistan. We need to do what we can to help stop child exploitation in Uzbekistan.

Despite international condemnation, the government of Uzbekistan is continuing to remove millions of children from schools across the country and forcing them to pick cotton during the current harvest season. Once again, the government is mandating that teachers shut down their classes and force children to meet government-imposed cotton production quotas.

While over 65 of the world’s largest apparel brands and retailers have developed policies related to Uzbek cotton due to the well-documented forced child labor in the country’s cotton fields, two companies have remained silent. In a sad twist of irony, the children’s clothing store Gymboree and Abercrombie and Fitch have refused to support human rights and speak out against forced child labor in the cotton industry.

The forced labor of children will continue in Uzbekistan until companies like Gymboree and Abercrombie and Fitch refuse to support these egregious abuses. Please take action NOW to tell Gymboree and Abercrombie and Fitch to respect international labor rights in their cotton sourcing.

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Your messages are making a difference! Abercrombie and Fitch has announced that it is instituting a policy of banning Uzbek cotton from its supply chain. However, the company has not provided additional information about how it ensures that this policy is effectively implemented through all of its suppliers. Let’s keep up the pressure on Gymboree which continues to remain silent on forced, child labor!

23 arrested in human smuggling bust in NYC

This particular article is interesting. This is not exactly a “human trafficking” case. This is a bad smuggling case that had the potential of becoming a human trafficking case. As noted in the article, the 70 men brought into NY all owed a debt. The men were brought in to work in Chinese restaurants. This type of scenario happens all the time throughout the entire U.S. Many of the people who work in your favorite Chinese restaurants may actually be victims of human trafficking. In the state of Florida, there have been numerous restaurants reported for this very same issue.

So the next time you go out to enjoy some fried rice and fortune cookies, look around you. Pay attention to the people who are working in the restaurant. Look at their body language. If something just doesn’t seem right, than it probably isn’t. Listen to you gut feeling.

Federal officers on Thursday arrested 23 people suspected of smuggling up to 70 men from China to work in Chinese restaurants in and around New York City.

“We allege that this was a for-profit smuggling scheme,” said Jim Hayes, Immigration and Custom Enforcement special agent in charge of the investigation.

He told CNN that the men were brought into the United States by business owners and illegal recruiters, who would get families to pay a fee of up to $75,000 each.