⁍ Under a 2016 law, it is illegal to import goods into the United States that are made entirely or in part by forced labor.

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⁍ Recent seizures by U.S. officials include rubber gloves from Malaysia and products such as cotton and clothes from Xinjiang, China.

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⁍ The watchdog said issues from limited data to a lack of targets meant the CBP was unable to monitor its own performance.

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– Under a 2016 law, it is illegal to import goods made entirely or in part by forced labor—which includes prison work, bonded labor, and child labor. Recent seizures by US officials include rubber gloves from Malaysia and products such as cotton and clothes from Xinjiang, China. The region is home to many Muslim Uighur people—a minority that has faced mass detention in government camps. The Government Accountability Office found Tuesday that Customs and Border Protection has in recent years suspended some investigations into imports it suspected to be tainted by slave labor because of staff shortages, the Thomson Reuters Foundation reports. The GAO report analysed the CBP’s performance from 2016 to 2019, during which time it issued about 13 detention orders. The agency has since ramped up action and levied at least 13 more import bans this year, most involving goods made in Xinjiang. Yet the watchdog said issues from limited data to a lack of targets meant the CBP was unable to monitor its own performance and best allocate resources. “CBP has increased forced labor investigations and civil enforcement actions, but managers lack complete and consistent data summarizing cases,” said the GAO report. In one misfilled CBP spreadsheet reviewed by the GAO, some entries listed the maker of suspect goods instead of detailing progress on a case, while data on sources of evidence was scant. In response, the Department of Homeland Security—which oversees the CBP—said it accepted the GAO recommendations and would look at staffing, improve data, and set itself targets.