A Nigerian prisoner who wrote a chilling plea on a Tesco Christmas card from inside a Chinese jail has said he and a fellow inmate wrote similar messages in 10 boxes of cards.
The man, named only as Antoine, who got out the prison two months ago after a four-year stretch for alleged contract fraud, heard one of his notes had been found after he returned home.
The message said it was from foreign residents in Shanghai’s Qingpu prison and claimed detainees were forced to work ‘against our will’.
It was found by Florence Widdicombe from Tooting, south London, and asked her to contact former journalist Peter Humphrey, which the schoolgirl’s father did.
Florence Widdicombe (pictured) from Tooting, south London, opened a card featuring a kitten in a Santa hat, but found a secret handwritten message inside.
The six-year-old (pictured) found the desperate plea in the pack of cards sold by Zheijiang Yunguang Printing
Antoine, 35, told the Sunday Times: ‘We thought about putting a message in some of the products we were forced to work on for the Chinese market.
‘But we knew these cards were going to the UK. It was fantastic when a card was found in London — we were successful.’
Antoine and the other Nigeria, who was cage for life for drug offences, decided to act last summer after a new warden last April said foreign prisoners would join Chinese ones in forced labour.
Antoine wrote six of the messages and his partner wrote four.
Tesco suspended the Chinese supplier of the Christmas cards last week and said it had launched an investigation.
It is now unlikely the nine other message will be found.
Last week China denied the ‘made up’ claims that prisoners were being used as slaves in the jail.
Tesco suspended the Chinese supplier of the Christmas cards last Sunday and said it had launched an investigation.
The six-year-old schoolgirl found a desperate plea from inmates at Chinese Qingpu prison, Shanghai, inside this Tesco charity Christmas card
The inmates had written this cry for help in the card, which was addressed to former inmate Peter Humphrey
Peter Humphrey said he was arrested by the Chinese government while working as a corporate fraud investigator. He was held in Qingpu prison for nine months
But China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang last week said: ‘I can responsibly say, according to the relevant organs, Shanghai’s Qingpu prison does not have this issue of foreign prisoners being forced to work.’
He dismissed the whole story as made-up and ‘a farce created by Mr. Humphrey’, who was himself detained in Qinqpu prison until his release in 2015.
Humphrey did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the ministry’s statement.
The cry for help from cards sold by Zheijiang Yunguang Printing throws a spotlight on the plight of thousands in Chinese prisons, as well as the supply chain behind Tesco’s card selection that raises £300,000 for the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK and Diabetes UK.
Tesco bosses announced they were pulling the range of cards from sale in the wake of the scandal.
A Tesco spokesman said: ‘We abhor the use of prison labour and would never allow it in our supply chain.
‘We were shocked by these allegations and immediately suspended the factory where these cards are produced and launched an investigation. We have also withdrawn these cards from sale while we investigate.
The heartbreaking plea was found by Florence Widdicombe from Tooting, south London, when she opened the card featuring a kitten in a Santa hat
‘We have a comprehensive auditing system in place and this supplier was independently audited as recently as last month and no evidence was found to suggest they had broken our rule banning the use of prison labour.
‘If a supplier breaches these rules, we will immediately and permanently de-list them.’
The heartbreaking note found by Florence said: ‘We are foreign prisoners in Shanghai Qingpu prison China. Forced to work against our will. Please help us and notify human rights organisations’.
Florence, six, pictured with three charity Christmas cards and the card that the message was found in. They are sold to raise £300,000 for the British Heart Foundation, Diabetes UK and Cancer Research UK
Peter Humphrey and his wife Yu Yingzeng, pictured together, were held by Chinese authorities on charges that were never heard in court
A picture on a government website shows what it claims is the entrance to Shanghai’s Qingpu prison
Florence found the card while writing her sixth or eighth card when she saw ‘somebody had already written it’, according to BBC News.
‘It made me feel shocked,’ she said, as her father Ben said he felt ‘incredulity’ when he first saw the message and thought it was some kind of prank.
‘But on reflection we realised it was potentially quite a serious thing,’ he said.
‘I felt very shocked but also felt a responsibility to pass it on to Peter Humphrey as the author asked me to do.
‘There is something about that message hitting home at Christmas… taht really does make it very poignant and very powerful.’
It allegedly came from Shanghai’s Qingpu prison, where a government website says inmates are forced to undertake duties including labour work and so-called education reforms. This image from the prisomn shows inmates attending a Chinese lesson in December 2006
Mr Peter Humphrey was held in the prison for nine months while he was detained in China for two years. Pictured above is an inmate at the prison in December 2006
A former inmate pictured making a sailboat model for Christmas at the Qingpu prison in December 2006. A former inmate has alleged that they have been making cards and gift tags for Tesco for two years at the prison
Humphrey and his American wife Yu Yingzeng were both sentenced in China in 2014 for illegally obtaining private records of Chinese citizens and selling the information to clients including drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline. The couple were deported from China in June 2015 after their jail terms were reduced.
Zheijiang Yunguang Printing is based 60 miles from Qingpu prison.
The company, which prints cards and books for food and pharmaceutical companies, says on its website it supplies Tesco.
Two phone calls and one emailed request for comment to the company went unanswered after usual business hours on Sunday.
The prison, open since 1994, is staffed with more than 500 police officers and comprises mainly inmates that have been given fixed term sentences of at least seven years, according to a Chinese government website.
Prisoners have duties including labour work, so-called education reforms, prison management and safety measures.
The prison also aims to ‘rectify bad habits’ and ‘cultivating consciousness in laws and regulations’.
Any mentions of Tesco in Chinese published in the last 24 hours were cleared from the internet.
The back of the Qingpu prison, as claimed by a government website. Foreign prisoners are held at this prison
An entrance to the Qingpu prison in Shanghai, China. The prison says online it puts inmates through labour work and so-called education reforms
It comes after a note wishing shoppers a merry Christmas was found in a Sainsbury’s Christmas card in 2017 after it was purchased by Jessica Rigby, 27, from Essex.
The note wished the recipient a happy Christmas, and was signed ‘Third Product Shop, Guangzhou Prison, Number 6 District’.
Rigby said at the time: ‘If they are genuinely made by Chinese prisoners what’s to say other things (Sainsbury’s) sell aren’t made by child labour and stuff like that?’
Sainsbury’s said in a statement: ‘All our suppliers have to meet our high welfare standards and strict Code of Conduct for Ethical Trade.
MailOnline has contacted the Cancer Research UK and Diabetes UK for comment.
Primark shopper finds distressing letter from ‘Chinese torture victim’ hidden in a pair of socks he bought from the budget store
Shahkiel Akbar pictured holding up the note and the socks it was found with
A Primark shopper found a distressing letter inside a pair of socks which claimed to be from a Chinese torture victim in 2015.
Shahkiel Akbar discovered the note hidden in the black cotton-rich socks which he bought from the budget chain’s store in the Metrocentre, Newcastle.
When he translated the note into English, Mr Akbar found what appeared to be a desperate cry for help from a man who claims to have been tortured after being framed for blackmail and fraud.
It read: ‘I was falsely accused and set up for fraud and blackmail by and illegally sentenced on June 29, 2014, by Lingbi County People’s Court for three years in jail.
‘At present I am forcefully detained at Lingbi County detention centre. My body and mind have been subjected to extreme torture and damage!
‘Whoever sees this letter, please give it to national government leader President Xi Jingping, Premier Li Keqiang or expose this through a journalist or media! My wife and I have both been paralysed!’
The Primark shopper found the note at Metrocentre, Newcastle, with black socks
Primark insists the company has found notes through the UK and that is part of a hoax.
Mr Akbar said: ‘I knew it was something sinister when I saw it. I was really shocked. I do feel responsible now I have found this. I just thought I need to shout it out.’
After finding the letter, Mr Akbar, 24, took it to his local Chinese takeaway to see if staff could translate it for him. When the owner said he was Korean and could not read Chinese, Mr Akbar used an app on the phone to translate the words into English.