The combination of government-led forced labor and broader state repression and surveillance in Xinjiang severely limits access to the region and makes it impossible to safely interview workers, Human Rights Watch (HRW) says.

The NGO's investigators spent months pouring over thousands of webpages to find evidence of companies’ participation in labor transfers, uncovering poducts and materials linked to state-sponsored forced labor. But Chinese internet censorship is making even this research increasingly difficult.

Human Rights Watch also urges European lawmakers to include remediation for victims of forced labor into new regulations.