Uyghur prisoners subjected to forced labor on farmland rented by Chinese
Hundreds of Uyghur inmates at Keriye Prison in the far-western Chinese region of Xinjiang are forced to work 12-14 hours a day in vast fields, Radio Free Asia reported.
Many inmates also work in factories located inside and outside the prison walls producing cement, shoes, gloves and tea, a prison guard told RFA Uyghur.
“They want to make the prisoners undergo ideological transformation through labor in these big fields,” said the prison employee.
Most Uyghurs detained in Xinjiang in recent years have never been formally charged with any crime or tried by the government.
Starting in 2017 and 2018, Chinese authorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region detained an estimated 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in “re-education” camps, where they were subjected to forced labor in factories producing textiles, wigs, tomatoes and solar panels for export.
The forced work and other abuses, including torture and sexual assaults, are part of a wider genocide that China is committing against the Uyghur people, the United States and other governments have declared.
