The Cotton On Group and Target Australia have stopped buying cotton from China’s Xinjiang province over concerns of human rights abuses.
Both companies completed internal investigations in their supply chains following a Four Corners story that revealed Muslims were being rounded up and forced to work in textile factories in the region.
Expert on China’s forced labour Adrian Zenz told Four Corners it would soon be impossible to determine whether products are made with labour from former detainees or not.
"Western companies stand an increasing risk of having products made by forced or at least highly involuntary labour somewhere in the supply chains. It's going to become inevitable as the scheme is unfolding and getting bigger and bigger," Mr Zenz said.