How Fairly Made assesses forced labor risks
Forced labor is a major risk in the textile industry, especially across complex, global production chains. Certain geographic zones or suppliers are regularly flagged by government investigations, NGOs, or specialized reports.
At Fairly Made, we analyze this risk along two axes:
- Geographic risk, based on supplier location
- Nominal risk, based on identifying specific factories in reliable reports
👉 Read our article on forced labor risks
What are the visible risk levels?
Geographic risks
For each area, the platform displays three possible different levels of risk:
- High: high risk
- Medium: medium risk
- Low: no detected or low risk
Nominal risks
When specific factories are cited, we categorize:
- Identified risk: supplier is known to be at risk
- Presumed risk: supplier indirectly linked to a known risk actor
- No risk detected: no mention found in the available reports
These indicators are intended to be used as a precautionary measures only. This information has been identified by means of text recognition. Fairly Made® does not in any way accuse the factory cited of actual forced labor.
Sources used
Fairly Made uses multiple sources to ensure a full and reliable risk assessment:
- The highest risk detected among sources is always displayed on the platform
- Sources are prioritized by reliability: laws, official regulations, legal decisions come first
UFLPA Entity List
The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) bans US imports of products suspected of forced labor, notably from China’s Xinjiang region.
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All factories listed on the official ban list are Identified risk
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Xinjiang is always labeled High risk geographically
This is a legal presumption of forced labor unless the importer proves otherwise.
WRO Dashboard
Released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, WROs block imports of goods suspected of forced labor.
These informations are based on government investigations; forced labor might not be legally proven.
- Status active, superseded, partially active → Identified risk at factory level, High risk geographically
- Status inactive → Low risk geographically or No risk detected nominally
Xinjiang Prison Labor – Kharon
This report documents factory involvement in forced Uyghur labor.
- Suppliers mentioned are Identified risk
- Companies sourcing from them also categorized as Identified risk
Panbianconews
This article reports cases of forced labour linked to the subcontracting of certain factories. The risk levels are as follows:
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Presumed risk: This supplier has subcontractors who may further subcontract to suppliers with identified risks.
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Identified risk: This supplier employs Asian workers “illegally”, most often clandestinely, in unhealthy and dangerous working conditions.
This information comes from the investigation led by prosecutor Paolo Storari, revealed as part of the inquiries conducted by the Labour Protection Group of Milan.
Global Slavery Index
This international database analyzes forced labor prevalence by country using:
- Prevalence: estimated number in modern slavery
- Vulnerability: structural risk (governance, human rights, poverty, conflict, discrimination)
Risk levels are defined as follows:
- Low: prevalence <10‰ and vulnerability <60%
- Medium: prevalence >10‰ or vulnerability >60%
- High: prevalence >20‰ or vulnerability >80%
Point of vigilance
The risks displayed on our platform are suspected risks detected through document analysis.
These risks are hypothetical, often established by the automatic recognition of factory names. These identified risks require additional critical thinking, because :
- Other risks may remain unidentified
- Absence of identification ≠ absence of risk
- A factory mention ≠ formal proof
Summary
With Supply Chain Intelligence, you can:
- Visualize risky areas in your supply chain
- Make smart decisions to uphold social commitments
- Understand connections between materials, suppliers, and forced labor issues
By centering transparency, we support a more responsible textile industry.