Made in Slavery is a four-episode podcast that explores the intricate mechanisms used by global corporations that exploit workers in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. The podcast highlights the complicity of well-known international brands in practices of outright slavery, and discusses how such brands involved, directly or indirectly, strengthen their economic power and market presence thanks to the profits derived from the use of the Uyghur forced labour. Additionally, it addresses the need for effective legislation, able to regulate corporate responsibility for human rights when operating abroad. As the podcast argues, what is needed is precisely a legislation preventing companies from becoming complicit in abuses that, as in the case of Xinjiang, can become crimes against humanity.
The podcast, written by Eleonora Mongelli, human rights expert and Vice President of the Italian Federation for Human Rights (FIDU), was first released in Italian in March of 2021. It is now available in an English and updated version made in partnership with FIDU, International Republican Institute (IRI), and Solent University (UK).
Editing and mixing by Guido Andreani
Original music by Vincenzo Vitulli
Voiceover by Katie Leeming