HONG KONG: Children of Uyghurs’ parents detained in China’s vast system of “re-education camps” in the far west region of Xinjiang are being separated from their families. They are being placed in huge, purpose-built boarding schools as part of a “coordinated state campaign” to provide “full-time or near full-time care for all children from a very young age.”
According to independent researcher Adrian Zenz, ”Children are being placed in highly secured, centralized boarding facilities without verifying whether or not they have other relatives who could serve as guardians.” “Children whose parents are in prison, detention, re-education or ‘training’ are classified into a special needs category that is eligible for state subsidies and for receiving ‘centralized care.’
This ‘care’ can take place in public boarding schools or in special children’s shelters.” But the parents have, in some cases, been detained without charge or trial, according to a 2018 report from the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
Up to 2 million people are estimated to have been detained in Xinjiang since early 2017. Activists and former detainees have described mass camps in Xinjiang where inmates live in jail-like conditions and receive repetitive lessons in Chinese propaganda.
The Chinese government says the “vocational” camps are intended to combat Islamic extremism, and state media reports there have been “no major terror attacks” in Xinjiang since the campaign began. “Driven by multi-billion dollar budgets, tight deadlines, and sophisticated digital database systems, this unprecedented campaign has enabled Xinjiang’s government to assimilate and indoctrinate children in closed environments by separating them from their parents,” Adrian Zenz, a German researcher said. “This separation can take various forms and degrees, including full daycare during work days, entire work weeks, and longer-term full-time separation.”
Zenz, a German researcher is considered as one of the leading experts on China’s vast system of camps targeting the Muslim Uyghur minority in Xinjiang has based his analysis on open-source, government documents, both state and private media articles, propaganda and evidence from former detainees. (Agencies)
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