A report by an independent UN expert has concluded that minorities have been recruited into forced labour in China, amounting to “enslavement as a crime against humanity”.
Over a million Uyghurs and Muslim minorities in China’s Xinjiang region have been drafted into forcefully working in sectors such as agriculture and manufacturing. Beijing has also been accused of carrying out forced sterilisation of women and coerced labour.
The United States and lawmakers in other western countries have gone as far as accusing China of committing “genocide” against the minority groups, allegations that China vehemently denies.
The UN report was released on Tuesday by an independent UN expert on modern slavery Tomoya Obokata. The report points to two “distinct state-mandated systems” in China in which forced labour has occurred.
The first is vocational skills training and education, where minorities are detained and subject to work placements, while another involves attempts to reduce poverty through labour transfer, in which rural workers are moved into “secondary or tertiary work”.
The report noted a similar labour transfer system exists in Tibet, where the “programme has shifted mainly farmers, herders and other rural workers into low-skilled and low-paid employment”.
China has long insisted it was running vocational training centres in Xinjiang designed to counter extremism, with President Xi Jinping visiting the region last month and hailing the “great progress” made in reform and development.
In May, the United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet concluded a rare six-day visit to China that also took her to Xinjiang.
Bachelet is due to publish a long-awaited report on the issue before she steps down at the end of the month.
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