Ikea apologizes for use of forced prison labor
BOSTON (MarketWatch) — Swedish furniture giant Ikea Group apologized Friday for using components made by forced prison labor, including political prisoners, in the former East Germany during the 1980s, according to The New York Times on Friday. Ikea issued the apology after a company-commissioned report by auditors Ernst & Young confirmed that some of Ikea’s suppliers used political prisoners as laborers, and that certain Ikea employees were aware of the situation. The suppliers in question were state-owned companies that operated under the former communist regime. The report noted that at the time, Ikea employees were not allowed to visit production sites in East Germany without tight supervision. “Even though Ikea Group took steps to secure that prisoners were not used in production, it is now clear that these measures were not effective enough,” Ikea said, as cited by the newspaper.
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