Ikea says product shortages will last well into the summer of 2022
Business InsiderAPR 20 2021
Furniture firm IKEA will pay 70M kroner (about $6M) as reparations to political prisoners of the former German Democratic Republic, or East Germany, whom it used as forced labor in the 1970s and 1980s. Ikea's exploitation was documented in 2012 by the SVT television network.
The Swedish company has handed over a declaration of intent in this regard to Evelyn Zupke, the German government commissioner handling affairs related to injustices in former East Germany. The German parliament will soon vote on the establishment of a hardship fund.
SVT showed that IKEA sourced from furniture makers who employed prisoners and the Swedish firm's top management reportedly knew about it. Its founder, Ingvar Kamprad, had claimed that only one supplier was involved. Often, the prisoner-made goods were exchanged for West German hard currency.
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