ADIDAS ASKED TO INVESTIGATE CLAIMS OF PRISON-MADE FOOTBALLS

The Brussels-based International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation (ITGLWF) has called on Adidas, supplier of footballs to the World Cup, to take immediate measures to ensure that the contractors who produce their goods in China don't use forced labour, either directly or indirectly.

The call follows recent allegations by four former Chinese labour camp inmates that they were forced to make World Cup footballs for Adidas. The four, who were imprisoned in the Dafeng camp in eastern Jiangsu province, said they were forced by prison guards to produce more than five footballs a day.

ITGLWF General Secretary Neil Kearney expressed concern at the revelations. In a letter to Adidas CEO Robert Louis-Dreyfus, he asked the German sportsgoods company to investigate the allegations and if they were found to be true immediately to cease sourcing all footballs from China.

An estimated eight million people are currently producing goods for export from inside China's gulags, the Laogai ("Reform through Work"). A wide range of different products are made in the Laogai and exported to international markets. Any private Chinese company can then be used as a front for the export of these goods, which can be exported without any trace of where they came from.

- END -

The International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation is an International Trade Secretariat bringing together 220 affiliated unions in 120 countries with a combined membership of 8.5 million members.

For more information, contact: Neil Kearney: 32/2/512.26.06 (office) or 32/2/75932487 (GSN)

Ref. LC1800.WPD