Numerous prominent car companies, including Tesla, GM, Volkswagen and Toyota, have failed to ensure they are not using forced labor in their Chinese supply chains, according to a recent report.

According to the Associated Press, the report links aluminum to the labor transfer programs affecting Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities. The report also suggests that foreign carmakers have maintained less strict control of their operations in China when compared to other countries, which leads to an increased risk of forced labor being used in their supply chains.

According to a study published February 1 by the U.S. nonprofit Human Rights Watch, entitled “Asleep at the Wheel: Car Companies’ Complicity in Forced Labor in China,” over 15% of the aluminum produced in China comes from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, a part of China where the government has conducted a “long-running campaign of repression against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim communities.”

“China is a dominant player in the global car industry, and governments need to ensure that companies building cars or sourcing parts in China are not tainted by the government’s repression in Xinjiang,” said Jim Wormington, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Doing business in China should not mean having to use or benefit from forced labor.”

The Human Rights Watch survey was based upon a December 2022 report by Sheffield Hallam University and the non-governmental organization NomoGaia that linked aluminum smelters in Xinjiang to major carmakers. Human Rights Watch also contacted five automakers that maintain operations both inside and outside of China in July 2023 for the report.