US Senate Passes Final Version of Uyghur Protection Bill, Sends to Biden for Signature

© REUTERS / JONATHAN ERNSTA general view of the U.S. Capitol under blue skies in Washington, U.S. December 14, 2021.
A general view of the U.S. Capitol under blue skies in Washington, U.S. December 14, 2021.  - Sputnik International, 1920, 16.12.2021
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WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The US Senate on Thursday passed the final version of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which bans importing goods made with forced labor in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
The Senate passed the measure by unanimous consent and now has sent it to President Joe Biden to sign it into law.
The House of Representatives passed the bill earlier this week by a voice vote.
The legislation targets "goods, wares, articles, and merchandise imported directly from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region or made by Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Tibetans, or members of other persecuted groups in China."
In addition, the measure requires the US president to impose sanctions on officials responsible for persecuting Muslim minorities and facilitating the use of involuntary labor.
The legislation also requires businesses to prove their operations do not involve the use of forced labor from alleged work camps in Xinjiang.
The legislation accuses China of arbitrarily imprisoning as many as 1.8 million Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and members of other Muslim minority groups in a system of extrajudicial mass internment camps.
The prisoners are forced to produce "textiles, electronics, food products, shoes, tea, and handicrafts" at a network of government-subsidized factories in Xinjiang and elsewhere in China, according to the legislation.
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