{"id":237170,"date":"2020-12-31T15:42:44","date_gmt":"2020-12-31T21:42:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=237170"},"modified":"2020-12-30T23:09:07","modified_gmt":"2020-12-31T05:09:07","slug":"uighur-muslims-forced-labor-china-concentration-camps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/uighur-muslims-forced-labor-china-concentration-camps\/","title":{"rendered":"AWFUL: Uighur Muslims endure forced labor inside China’s massive concentration camps"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The widespread genocide against\u00a0Uighur Muslims<\/a> in China has been garnering international attention, though little action has been taken to stop it. It’s estimated that over one million Uighurs, an ethnic Muslim minority in China, are being held in concentration camps<\/a>. Survivors<\/a> have spoken about enduring torture, abuse, and forced abortions. Others are being murdered. Now, a new investigation has found that Uighurs are also being used for forced labor.<\/p>\n

Buzzfeed News has released part four<\/a> of an ongoing investigation into the human rights abuses against the Uighurs. Using government records, interviews, and satellite images, it discovered that at least 135 of the concentration camps where Uighurs are being held also contain factory buildings, where prisoners are likely being forced to work. The buildings together are four times the size of the Mall of America, at over 21 million square feet \u2014 and it is believed that more are being built.<\/p>\n

\"China

Photo via BuzzFeed<\/p><\/div>\n

Former detainees told Buzzfeed News they were forced to work in the factory buildings without pay. While prisoners were working, the buildings were locked from the outside. This forced labor is good for business in China. As Buzzfeed News reported (emphasis added):<\/p>\n

Xinjiang\u2019s industry is booming, and the region has one of the fastest GDP growth rates in China. Xinjiang exports a range of products, from clothing to machinery, and the US is one of the region\u2019s fastest-growing markets. Xinjiang\u2019s factories produce many goods that eventually make their way to US consumers.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

… [L]abor rights advocates, as well as experts who have examined the abuses in Xinjiang, argue that forced labor is so widespread in the region that no company that manufactures there could conclude that its supply chain is free from it. That would mean that US consumers have no real way of knowing whether the goods they purchase from Xinjiang are tainted.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Scott Nova, executive director of the Worker Rights Consortium, told Buzzfeed News that corporations bear responsibility. \u201cCorporations should stop producing in, and sourcing from, Xinjiang,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is no way to produce responsibly in the region until the forced labor and broader repression ends.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0UN Human Rights Council appoints abortionist as expert on human rights<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Additionally, Buzzfeed News found that one of the firms there is making military uniforms for numerous Chinese outfits, including the People\u2019s Liberation Army, the People\u2019s Armed Police, and China\u2019s Public Security bureau.<\/p>\n

Yet far from putting an end to these human rights abuses, many in the international community are looking the other way.<\/p>\n

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One week from tomorrow, a man who herded 1 million Uighurs into camps, jails human rights activists, crushed Tibet, disappeared courageous men and women who sounded the alarm on the coronavirus, and suffocated freedom in Hong Kong will join the U.N.'s highest human rights body. pic.twitter.com\/j4iSBOOnlk<\/a><\/p>\n

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) December 24, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n