Failure to Probe Chinese Cotton Imports ‘Would Lead to a Marketplace in Criminal Property,’ Court Is Told

Failure to investigate cotton imports with suspected links to Uyghur forced labour would lead to “a marketplace in criminal property,” the Court of Appeal has heard. In a two-day hearing on Wednesday and Thursday, lawyers representing human rights groups argued that the National Crime Agency (NCA) had based its decision not to investigate Chinese cotton imports on “legal errors.” The appeal came after the High Court in January rejected a claim brought by the World Uyghur Congress (WUC) that said the Home Secretary, HMRC, and the NCA had unlawfully failed to investigate cotton imports from China’s Xinjiang region using the Foreign Prison-Made Goods Act 1897 and the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002....