The online retailer faced a backlash this week after a third-party seller named Styleart listed a number of items emblazoned with the phrase “Slavery Gets Shit Done” on Amazon’s Marketplace platform. The products included laptop cases, mugs, bags, children’s T-shirts and bibs, according to reports.
Human rights organization Anti-Slavery International described the items as “absolutely shocking” and urged Amazon to “do better to control what you sell.” Some customers also called for a boycott of the website.
“One in four of the estimated 40 million people in slavery today are children,” said David Westlake, the CEO of British anti-slavery organization International Justice Mission UK.
“Today, children the same age as those modeling these T-shirts will be forced to work long, back-breaking hours for no pay,” he told Global Citizen. “They will be living in desperate conditions where starvation, beatings and sleep deprivation are common.”
Amazon has pulled the items from sale from all of its sites, a spokesman for the retailer told Reuters. “All Marketplace sellers must follow our selling guidelines and those who don’t will be subject to action including potential removal of their account,” he added.