Berlin (AFP)

Human rights activists on Monday announced the filing of a lawsuit in Germany against several companies, including Lidl and Hugo Boss, which they accuse of "profiting" from the forced labor of members of the Uyghur Muslim minority in China.

The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), an NGO based in Berlin, said it had "filed a complaint against several German companies" for "alleged complicity in crimes against humanity".

This covers the clothing chains Hugo Boss and C&A, and the chain stores Lidl, Aldi Nord and Aldi Sud.

The association accuses these companies of "taking advantage of and complicit, directly or indirectly, in the forced labor of the Uyghur minority in Xinjiang" (west).

Beijing is accused by Western countries of massively locking up members of this predominantly Muslim and Turkish-speaking community in western China in large labor camps.

However, the companies targeted by the complaint have supply factories in the region, which they have "publicly and voluntarily declared", comments Miriam Saage-Maass, director at ECCHR.

If the NGO says that it is difficult to obtain tangible evidence of the use of forced labor, "the question is whether maintaining business relationships is not a way of helping and d 'encourage these crimes,' she said.

"We believe these five cases are just one example of a much larger and more systematic problem," the activist said.

A similar complaint was also filed in France in April by the anti-corruption association Sherpa against four multinational clothing companies, including Uniqlo, and Zara.

A Uniqlo store in Beijing, April 5, 2021. The Japanese group is the target of a complaint in France concerning the forced labor of Uyghurs in China NICOLAS ASFOURI AFP / Archives

This led to the opening at the end of June of an investigation by the "Crimes against humanity" pole of the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office (Pnat).

The United States claims Beijing is carrying out genocide against Uyghurs and other Turkish peoples in Xinjiang, where experts estimate more than a million people are being held.

Beijing denies the term genocide and describes the camps as vocational training centers, a claim rejected by Uyghurs who say they are forced to give up their religious traditions.

© 2021 AFP