Share and Follow
Australia is a global frontrunner when it comes to solar adoption.
More than 4.3 million homes and small businesses have installed rooftop solar panels, and around 1,000 new systems are installed each day.
Without a domestic supply chain, Australia is importing around 90 per cent of its solar panels from China.
Ramila Chanisheff, president of the Australian Uyghur Tangritagh Women’s Association, says her people are being forced to make them.
“Solar energy is among the key industries implicated in the use of forced labor involving Uyghurs,” she revealed to SBS News.
Former detainees have provided evidence and testimony describing horrific conditions, including torture, political indoctrination, forced sterilization, and drugging. Additionally, they reported food deprivation as a method of punishment for those who resisted.
In what was officially described as an effort to combat extremism, around one million members of the majority Muslim Uyghur minority were sent to so-called re-education centres between 2017 and 2019.
When asked about the nature of these facilities, she stated, “Is it akin to a prison? I cannot say for sure. But it certainly resembles a concentration camp.”
An official Chinese government report published in November 2020 documented the “placement” of 2.6 million minority citizens in farms and factories within the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and across the country through state-sponsored initiatives.
Chanisheff said there was credible evidence from Uyghur people who say their family members have been taken into forced labour camps.
“All those Uyghur are being put into forced labour within East Turkistan or Xinjiang, or being trafficked to mainland China to do the work,” she said.
The Chinese government says the labour programs are voluntary poverty alleviation initiatives, intended to provide opportunity for the “graduates” of the “re-education” camps.
Chanisheff says there is nothing voluntary about it.
“Once you are in, you don’t have the freedom to leave,” she said.
“They are forced, coerced. If they don’t say yes, they themselves might disappear or their family members may be held at ransom by the state.Â
“This is state-sanctioned forced labour. The conditions are harsh, you work extremely long hours, you’re indoctrinated.
She emphasized the need for transparency, saying, “Without independent investigations, the only narrative we receive is what China permits us to see through the diaspora.”
The then-US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, declared China’s abuses against the Uyghurs a genocide in 2021.
Others countries, including Canada, the United Kingdom, France, and Denmark have passed non-binding motions alleging the same.
China strongly denied Pompeo’s declaration at the time.
A 2022 report from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights found that “serious human rights violations” had been committed against the Uyghurs.
The federal government said it was “deeply concerned” about the findings.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said at the time the UN assessment was a “patchwork of false information that serves as political tools for the US and other Western countries to strategically use Xinjiang to contain China”.
Members of the diaspora and researchers exposing the alleged abuses say they’ve been targeted and even threatened by Chinese authorities
With a report from the UK of a research project at Sheffield’s Hallam University suspended by the university earlier this year (it was resumed in October) after pressure from Chinese authorities, Chanisheff says the government works very hard to silence its critics.
Fuzz Kitto, a co-founder of Be Slavery Free—a coalition of Australian organizations committed to ending modern slavery and raising awareness—also supports these concerns.
Why aren’t Australian companies investing in solar production here?
Australia has poured billions into solar power and green manufacturing, and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency is currently funding feasibility studies for new domestic polysilicon production facilities. Polysilicon is a key material in solar panels.
But for now, with a few small exceptions, Australia still imports most of its solar panels from China.
Fuzz Kitto is the co-founder of Be Slavery Free, an Australian coalition of organisations that work to raise awareness and end modern slavery.
He told SBS News that investors in the energy sector feel they have no choice but to invest in companies sourcing from, or connected to, the Xinjiang region — despite the alleged human rights abuses happening there.Â
“Even though the experts say that there’s enough outside of that region to supply the United States, Europe and leading countries in their needs for solar-produced electricity, it is certainly not being transparent about where it’s coming from.”
Solar panels are made with solar-grade polysilicon, which is made from silica sand produced from quartz.
China manufactures around 95 per cent of the global supply of polysilicon, much of it made in factories with links to forced Uyghur labour.
According to the Australian Mining Review, Australia is the largest silica sand exporter in the Asia-Pacific region, with most of our exports going to Chinese markets.
Kitto says we should be making polysilicon here.
“I think one of the great difficulties is that people think that there are no alternatives,” he said.
“To produce polysilicons, you need cheap electricity and you need sands of that quality.Â
“We do have sands of that quality in Australia. In fact, we export sand to China for the making of polysilicons, which is just incredible.Â
“Why we aren’t producing them in Australia is beyond us.”
Limited anti-slavery law enforcement
In 2021, former US president Joe Biden passed the Uyghur Forced Labour Prevention Act, outlawing imports from dozens of companies that were publicly named on a blacklist.
Under Australia’s Criminal Code, slavery is a crime and the offences have universal jurisdiction — meaning the law applies even if the crime occurs outside Australia.
Fuzz Kitto says that without enforcement mechanisms, the laws are not as strong as those in the US.
“The Australian Modern Slavery Act is weak at the moment. It is being reformed, but we’ve been lobbying for an Australian forced labour import ban as well, which is outside the scope of the present reform process.”
As well as forced labour allegations, experts say lax national environmental standards allow companies in China to drill into natural resources and fuel their factories with cheap coal.
Consequently, solar panels made in the Uyghur region reportedly have a higher carbon footprint than those manufactured elsewhere in the world.
The attorney-general’s department told SBS News in a statement that Australia is committed to ensuring supply chains do not promote, condone, or financially support modern slavery.
It added that the government is currently undertaking consultations on the enforcement of the Modern Slavery Act.
With global solar supplies heavily linked to forced Uyghur labour, human rights groups are urging the Australian government and companies to be transparent about where they source solar components from.
While solar from China is the cheapest option, Chanisheff says the transition to clean energy must not put profit over people.
“Companies that bring in these solar panels are there to make profit, so they don’t get held accountable,” she said.
“It seems like money is trumping human rights, and we’re not doing enough to stop products made by forced labour from entering this country.”
