Ikea 'used Cuban prisoners to make furniture

By Matthew Day   03 May 2012

 Photo: REUTERS

The deal was struck in 1987 when representatives of Ikea Trading Berlin, an East German branch of the Swedish company, met with the head of Emiat, a Cuban company that furnished the homes of Havana's elite and holiday facilities for Western tourists.

Under the deal Emiat would produce of 45,000 tables and 4,000 "Falkenberg" three-piece suites.

Old East German foreign ministry files seen by the journalists from the German paper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung record production sites for the furniture were "incorporated in the prison facilities of the Interior Ministry" of Cuba.

The revelations come just a day after Swedish television made fresh allegations that forced East German prison labour was used at Ikea production plants in the old German Democratic Republic.

Ikea has requested Stasi secret police files in order to check the veracity of the accusations.