Florence Widdicombe, aged six, was writing Christmas cards to her school friends when she reached one that was already filled in. The box came from Tesco, and the message inside was in block capitals: “We are foreign prisoners in Shanghai Qingpu prison China. Forced to work against our will. Please help us and notify human rights organisation.”
The Sunday Times reported the find. Tesco has since suspended production at the Chinese factory that makes the charity cards, Zhejiang Yunguang Printing, and pulled the cards from sale.
Florence, from Tooting in south London, told BBC News she was on “my sixth or eighth card” when she saw it. “It made me feel shocked,” she said, and “sad” once the meaning was explained to her. Her father, Ben Widdicombe, first felt “incredulity” and took it for “some sort of prank”. On reflection, he said, “we realised it was potentially quite a serious thing.”
The man named in the note
The note asked whoever read it to contact Peter Humphrey, a British journalist who was jailed in the same Qingpu prison. Widdicombe reached him through LinkedIn, as the author had asked, and Humphrey took the story to the Sunday Times.
Humphrey was held in China from 2013 to 2015 and spent his last nine months in the very cell block the card came from. “So this was written by some of my cellmates from that period who are still there serving sentences,” he told the BBC. He said he thinks he knows who wrote it but will never name that person.
He also contacted former prisoners. One told him that for at least two years, inmates in the foreign prisoner unit had picked designs, packaged the Tesco cards, sealed the boxes and loaded them into shipping cartons. They packed Tesco gift tags as well, he said. Humphrey added that in his own time at Qingpu he saw tags from other high street brands.
The block holds about 250 foreign prisoners, with 12 to a cell, Humphrey said. When he was there, factory work was voluntary and paid for small items like soap. Now, he said, it has become compulsory.
What Tesco says
A Tesco spokesman said: “We abhor the use of prison labour and would never allow it in our supply chain. We were shocked by these allegations and immediately suspended the factory where these cards are produced and launched an investigation.”
The retailer said an independent audit of the supplier last month found no evidence of a breach. If a supplier breaks the rule, it said, “we will immediately and permanently de-list them.” It has had no other customer complaints about messages in cards.
Sales of the charity cards raise £300,000 a year for the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK and Diabetes UK. The charities are understood to be getting the full donation again this year.
Similar notes have turned up before. In 2017, Jessica Rigby of Braintree, Essex, found one in a Sainsbury’s box of cards. In 2014, Karen Wisinska of Co Fermanagh said she found a note in Primark trousers claiming prisoners worked 15 hours a day. Amnesty International says forced labour persists in Chinese detention facilities.
Sources
- Tesco withdraws Christmas cards from sale after forced labour claims
- Tesco halts production at Chinese factory over alleged 'forced' labour
