In a survey conducted jointly by Disclose and Cash Investigation, the French brand Decathlon is accused of collaborating with a Chinese subcontractor involved in a modern slavery system.
The brandPreferred by the French (according to the annual ranking of the OC & C firm and member of the Mulliez Empire) find itself at the heart of a scandal? One of its main suppliers is involved in a modern slavery system in China, according to a survey by Disclose In partnership with Cash Investigation. Disclose reveals that one of the suppliers of the French firm, JIFA, relies on a system of “trafficking in human beings”, in particular women of Uighur origin repressed by the Chinese regime. These women would make clothes likely to end up in Decathlon stores present in France and all over the world.
Everything started from a commercial document communicated by an internal source in Decathlon from Disclose. Inside the list of group’s subcontractors worldwide. Result: Jifa is a part of it and the French brand bought him “for 2022 alone, more than 43 million euros in clothing”, we can read from the first lines of the survey. It is the start of discomfort.
Compulsory work under stress and factories subsidized by the regime
Since 2020, and camps in the Xinjiang province, Uighurs would be brought by Beijing to work under stress, especially in industry and agriculture. Several serious NGOs have conducted investigations that arrive at this conclusion. This economy benefits Jifa, the Decathlon supplier. Disclose reveals that in the southwest of Xinjiang, an industrial park quickly came out of the ground with in its factories,That of “Xinjiang Xirong Clothing, a subsidiary of the JIFA group, specializing in clothing making”, indicates the media. One of its European customers is none other than Decathlon.
Problem, this is not a classic factory. Inside, local residents work there, including peasants from the region, who would be forced to come and work there. “Whoever refuses (…) risks imprisonment” even ensures a report published in 2023 by the British University Sheffield Hallam. This factory is currently “certified” by Decathlon. And Jifa would have every interest in using this kind of audience, the brand is subsidized by the local government up to 29 million yuan (almost 4 million euros), to “train ethnic minorities from the Xinjiang”. A vocational high school is even located less than a kilometer from the workshops, enough to provide cheap and young labor to the Jifa factory and in particular the Xinjiang Xirong Clothing subsidiary.
“In reality, the professional high school of Yegisar is more like a prison than a school establishment,” denounces disclose. Have some buildings served as a Uighurs internment camp between 2018 and 2021. And Decathlon? The French brand denies any link with the subsidiary Xinjiang Xirong Clothing, despite the fact that Qingdao Jifa Group is today referenced as direct subcontractor of Decathlon: “Xinjiang Xirong Company was never a supplier of Decathlon”, ensures the brand.
Kalenji, Domyos, Kipsta and the NBA cited
But that’s not all, Jifa, the partner of Decathlon is involved in another form of modern slavery: that is to say the transfer of populations to the other end of the country, in the Shandong. Here, Disclose reveals that the Chinese authorities finance a population displacement by “aid to the winjiang” to supplement the lack of labor in the Shandong. Problem for Decathlon, Jifa has around twenty factories in the area. According to the disclose and cash investigation survey, two Jifa factories work for the French brand in the village of Liudi for the first, and for the other, it is the Sanzhiwang plant.
Kalenji t-shirts, Tarmak, Domyos pants and Kipsta jerseys have notably been seen in videos published by employees. Cash Investigation also evokes products sporting the Logo of the American Basketball League, the NBA, of which Decathlon has been a partner since 2021. The brand claims to be able to sell products “in the colors of the NBA and the NBA franchises, and this” in More than 1,700 Decathlon stores in the world and online “, in Africa, Asia, Europe, Middle East and Latin America.
Finally, concerning cotton harvest – that used by Decathlon could come from Xinjiang according to a frame of Jifa – Jifa has no hands on the choice of harvest. “Cotons are chosen by Decathlon,” reveals the investigation. The French brand assures that“100% of the cotton used in the manufacture of its products comes from sources engaged in more responsible practices”.