A Uyghur film-maker who was arrested in Beijing earlier this year will appear on trial in Xinjiang on Wednesday. Ikram Nurmehmet, 32, was taken from his home by Chinese authorities on 29 May and flown to Ürümqi, Xinjiang’s capital, where he is being held in pre-trial detention on unknown charges, according to his supporters. Born and raised in Ürümqi, Nurmehmet is an independent film-maker based in Beijing, where he lives with his wife and infant son. Hours after his arrest, police called his wife to notify her of his transfer…
Tag: Uyghurs
Uyghur News Recap: Oct. 13-20, 2023
WASHINGTON — Uyghur Prisoners Forced Into Labor for Chinese Businesses in Xinjiang Uyghur inmates at Keriye Prison in Xinjiang endure grueling forced labor, toiling for extended hours in fields and factories, according to a report by Radio Free Asia. The labor benefits Chinese businessmen who lease the prison’s farmland and is also meant to reform the inmates through labor, according to prison employees who spoke to RFA. The prison conditions are part of wider allegations of abuses in Xinjiang, with the U.S. and other countries labeling it a genocide, a…
Scottish Water admits solar farms could use parts linked to China’s forced labour camps
Scottish Water has admitted that its solar farms could use components linked to forced labour camps in China, “in clear conflict” with its anti-slavery policies. Scottish Water, a state-owned monopoly, has installed tens of thousands of solar panels it suspects are linked to Chinese slave labour at 66 sites around the country, bought for tens of millions of pounds. They include a “super solar” scheme at its large water treatment works that supplies 565,000 people in the Glasgow area with drinking water. It said the 8,448 panels at Balmore in…
Uyghur News Recap: Oct. 6-13, 2023
WASHINGTON — Uyghur Forced Labor in China’s Seafood Industry The Chinese government forcibly sends Uyghurs to work in various industries, including seafood processing for export, as part of its control and assimilation efforts, according to a report in The New Yorker, published in collaboration with the Outlaw Ocean Project. Despite the U.S. passing the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, the seafood industry’s use of Uyghur labor remains largely unnoticed, with Uyghurs working in factories in Shandong Province. Uyghur Academic Awarded 2023 PEN Writer of Courage Rahile Dawut, a prominent Uyghur…
You may be eating fish caught and processed by Uyghur forced labor | Kenneth Roth
Last month, Chinese diplomats sent letters – really threats – to discourage attendance at an event on the sidelines of the UN general assembly spotlighting Beijing’s persecution of Uyghur and other Turkic Muslims in China’s Xinjiang region. The childish tactic backfired, heightening media interest, but it highlighted the lengths to which Beijing will go to cover up its repression. A recent exposé on the persecution of Uyghurs should reinforce our determination to address these crimes against humanity. A four-year investigation by the Outlaw Ocean Project pulls back the curtain on…
China has sentenced Rahile Dawut to life in prison and would like the world to forget her. We must not | Rachel Harris
I last saw Rahile Dawut in 2016, at a conference we’d organised in Hong Kong. We sat in a sunny precinct, drank coffee, and enjoyed a rare moment of calm before the gathering storm. She was detained in 2017, and this week we have confirmation, via the US-based Dui Hua Foundationrights group, that Dawut has been jailed for life by China for “splittism”: a deliberate attempt to split the Chinese nation. When we met in 2016, Dawut was already experiencing trouble. On her journey from Urumqi to Hong Kong, her…
Imprisoned Uyghur academic named 2023 PEN international writer of courage
Leading Uyghur professor Rahile Dawut has been named this year’s international writer of courage. Having been missing for six years, last month Dawut was reportedly sentenced to life in prison by Chinese authorities on charges of endangering state security. Dawut was picked by Michael Rosen who, as winner of the PEN Pinter prize, shares the award with a writer of courage, selected from a shortlist of international writers who have actively defended freedom of expression, often at risk to their own safety. Rosen chose Dawut, a global expert on Uyghur…
Campaigners aim to lower support for China on UN human rights council
An effort is under way to drive down the Chinese vote at the UN human rights council this week in an attempt to show continuing worldwide disapproval of its human rights record. The elections on to the world’s premier human rights body take place by secret ballot on Tuesday with China guaranteed a seat in one of the uncontested seats from its region, but human rights campaigners are working to lower the level of Chinese support to show pressure on the country is not dissipating. Russia is also seeking to…
Uyghur News Recap: Sept. 22-29, 2023
WASHINGTON — US Adds 3 Chinese Firms to Uyghur Forced Labor List in Crackdown The United States on Tuesday added three Chinese companies to its forced labor entity list regarding Uyghurs. These companies — Xinjiang Tianmian Foundation Textile Co, Ltd.; Xinjiang Tianshan Wool Textile Co. Ltd., and Xinjiang Zhongtai Group Co. Ltd. — were targeted as part of efforts to eradicate forced labor practices within the U.S. supply chain. This action aligns with the 2021 Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List, which restricts imports of goods produced in Xinjiang…
US Bans 3 Chinese Manufacturers Over Suspicions They Used Forced Uyghur Labor
Three Chinese textile manufacturers have been banned from exporting their goods to the United States over suspicions they may be using forced labor in their production lines. International watchdogs have accused the Chinese government of setting up internment camps in the northwestern city of Xinjiang to extract forced labor from Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities, including Kazakhs and Kyrgyz. U.S. intelligence now believes the three Xinjiang-based companies are collaborating with the Chinese government to enslave and further persecute Muslim minorities in the region. “We do not tolerate companies that use…