Thousands of cars from brands owned by the German car giant Volkswagen have been impounded at US ports over allegations that certain parts were made using forced labour.

The FT reports that a supplier to VW found a “Chinese subcomponent” in the cars, which purportedly breached US anti-forced labour laws.

Delivery of the vehicles is expected to be delayed several weeks, as the carmaker is looking to replace the offending parts.

The ban reportedly affected thousands of Porsche, Bentley and Audi cars, which remain stuck in US customs.

VW response

The US has implemented bans on imports of products made with forced labour in the Xinjiang province of China under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act of 2021.

Insiders told the FT that the company was not aware of the origin of the part until the supplier’s alert and informed authorities immediately.

“We are working to rectify a delay in delivering certain Volkswagen Group vehicles from ports to dealers due to a customs issue,” VW said in a brief statement.

VW told Voice of America that it “takes allegations of infringements of human rights very seriously, both within the company and in the supply chain”.

An earlier report from the FT said that VW was in talks with a joint partner in China over “the future direction of business” in the region, following allegations in the German newspaper Handlesblatt that forced labour was used in building a test track by China-owned carmaker SAIC.

UK moves

UK MPs have previously recommended a ban on imports of products manufactured in the Xinjiang region, where human rights abuses against the Uyghur Muslim minority have been widely reported.

In January 2023, the World Uyghur Congress, a Chinese human rights group, lost a judicial review against the UK’s policy on cotton exports, which it alleged to have been produced using slave labour, as reported previously by the IOE&IT Daily Update.

The WUC received permission to appeal the decision in February last year, with a hearing expected in the first half of 2024.

Aluminium supply chains

A Human Rights Watch report published earlier this month (1 February), alleged that carmakers, including VW, Tesla and Toyota, were “failing to minimise the risk of Uyghur forced labour being used in their aluminium supply chains”.

“Car companies simply don’t know the extent of their links to forced labor in Xinjiang in their aluminium supply chains,” said Jim Wormington, senior researcher and advocate for corporate accountability at the rights organisation.