Sunday, February 13, 2022

Uighur Discrimination Continues in China

 A report from the International Labour Organization says China continues to carry out discriminatory work policies, such as forced labour, impossible production expectations and long working hours, against the Uighurs in its northwest province of Xinjiang.

It stressed that China has violated various articles of the Employment Policy Convention of 1964, which Beijing ratified in 1997, including the right to freely choose employment.

The 870-page report, titled Application of International Labour Standards, was an assessment by the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations.

It looks at different countries progress from Congo to Afghanistan in relation to ratifying labour conventions and details abuses in areas like child labour, equality of opportunity, maternity protection, vocational training and more.

China continues to engage in widespread and systematic “programmes” involving the extensive use of forced labour of the Uighur and other Turkic and Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.

Some 13 million members of the ethnic and religious minorities in Xinjiang are targeted based on their ethnicity and religion, adding that Beijing’s justified its methods in a context of “poverty alleviation”, “vocational training”, “reeducation through labour” and “de-extremification”.

A key feature of China’s programme is the use of forced labour in or around internment or “re-education” camps housing some 1.8 million Uighur and other Turkic or Muslim peoples in the region. The abuses take place in or around prisons and workplaces across Xinjiang and other parts of the country. Life in “re-education centres” or camps is characterised by extraordinary hardship, lack of freedom of movement, and physical and psychological torture. It also alleges prison labour in cotton harvesting and the manufacture of clothing and footwear.

Outside Xinjiang, Uighur workers live and work in segregation, are required to attend Mandarin classes and are prevented from practising their culture or religion.

China continues its labour abuse practices against Uighurs: UN | Uighur News | Al Jazeera



No comments: