Ikea linked to prisoner labour

SWEDISH retail giant Ikea used political prisoners in East Germany as “slave labour” to make furniture, secret police files unearthed by a German broadcaster appear to show.

Ikea developed strong ties with the communist state in the 1970s, opening a number of manufacturing facilities, one of which, according to Stasi records discovered by a German TV company, used political prisoners to construct sofas.

The factory in Waldheim was next to a prison, and it is claimed the inmates were used as unpaid labour.

Quoted in a Stasi file, Ingvar Kamprad, Ikea’s founder, said that while he had no official knowledge of the use of prison labour, if it did exist, “in the opinion of Ikea, it would be in society’s interests”.