The Human Rights Crisis in China's Concentration Camps by Vivien Talon

China's Uighur Concentration Camp

by Vivien Talon

Indian Muslims protesting Chinese government 

Mumbai, India, Sept. 14 2018

   A significant humanitarian crisis has reappeared in the latter months of 2018, and despite the growing attention towards this issue, persists in the early months of 2019. The Chinese western province of Xinjiang holds a series of detention centers for a Muslim minority, Uighur (or Uyghur). Uighurs are  ethnically Turkic Muslims, with 11 million in western China. These camps, according to the Executive Foreign Minister Le Yucheng, are provided for training and to fight regional terrorism (VOA News) as well as to "purge ideological diseases" (Time). Global criticism has not disrupted these camps, however. Over the last year, the camps have intensified, holding between 800,000 to 2 million people (VOA News).

Protest of the treatment of Uighur Muslims outside Chinese embassy

London, England, Feb.2, 2019

   In these camps, more than 1 million Uighurs are being tortured and "politically brainwashed" in China's prisons and camps, although the Chinese refer to these as "campuses" and even "boarding schools". These events have amassed global uproar, and even brought Turkey to demand China's authorities to respect the rights of the Muslim Uighur minority, especially after the death of Uighur poet and musician, Abdurehim Heyit died in a re-education camp in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (Time). Turkey called on other countries, and the UN to take action against this humanitarian crisis. Yet even after the many protests and criticisms of these camps, not much seems to have changed.

   

Muslim man leads prayer in Xinjiang region

2008

   How did this happen? According to BBC News, Human Rights Watch claims that Uighur people are subject to close surveillance, and are even forced to give up DNA and bio-metric samples to Xinjiang government. People with relatives in any of the 26 "sensitive countries have been rounded up and detained. Human rights groups say these people are made to learn Mandarin and criticize or even denounce their faith. Former prisoners have testified against the treatment of Uighurs, describing physical and psychological torture in these camps. Entire families have disappeared. These practices are shown in "almost a complete surveillance state in Xinjiang".

Sources:

- http://time.com/5526022/turkey-china-concentration-camps-uighurs/ 

- https://www.voanews.com/a/chinese-envoy-calls-muslim-detention-centers-campuses/4833464.html 

-https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-45474279