Desperate workers have allegedly left notes inside holiday cards, jacket pockets, and purses for years, begging for Western shoppers to send help

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Shen Yongmei, a former labor camp detainee, in Shanghai, China, in November 2013. Not mentioned in this story.

• A 6-year-old girl from London found a handwritten plea for help inside a Christmas card bought from the UK grocery chain Tesco.
• The innocuous greeting card contained a disturbing message from someone claiming to be a prisoner at the Shanghai Qingpu prison in China.
• The discovery of notes like these have become more common in recent years.
• Here are six other examples of cries of help alleging forced labor found inside products from popular retail stores.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

This week, it was reported that a six-year-old girl from South London found a handwritten plea for help inside a Christmas card bought from Tesco, the massive UK grocery-store chain.

The innocuous greeting card contained a disturbing message from someone claiming to be a prisoner at the Shanghai Qingpu prison in China.

"We are foreign prisoners in Shanghai Qingpu prison China," the message said, according to The Sunday Times' Peter Humphrey, who broke the story. "Forced to work against our will. Please help us and notify human rights organization."

Dominic Lipinski/PA Images via Getty Images

Florence Widdicombe, 6, writes in a Tesco Christmas card from the same pack as a card she found contained a message from an alleged Chinese prisoner.

The discovery of notes like these have become more common in recent years.

Major international retailers like Zara, Walmart, and Kmart have dealt with backlash from similar notes discovered in products sold at their stores.

According to the 2019 Global Slavery Index, 40.3 million people are considered to be modern-day slaves, and no country in the world is exempt regardless of its size, population or wealth. Of those 40.3 million people, an estimated 16 million people are forced into labor exploitation in the private economy around the globe.

Here are seven examples of cries for help, alleging forced labor, that have been found inside items from popular retail stores: