China still holding over 500,000 Uyghurs in detention, expanding forced labour: Report

China continues to hold over half a million Uyghurs in prisons or detention facilities and has intensified its oppression of this ethnic group, contrary to Beijing’s claims that the northwestern region of Xinjiang has returned to a state of normalcy, according to a report by Radio Free Asia (RFA).

In 2023, an additional 3 million Uyghurs were subjected to forced labor, as stated in a 30-page report from the Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, RFA reported.

Utilizing Chinese government documents, satellite images, testimonials from survivors, and recent academic research, investigators found that China maintained its primary repressive measures from 2022 to 2024, including those that led the United States to deem the treatment of Uyghurs a genocide, according to the RFA report.

“In certain instances, like mass detentions, the institutional methods of the policy have shifted while still producing similar effects, while in other cases, such as forced labor and the relocation of Turkic minority children to Han households in residential schools, the oppressive practices have broadened, the report said.

The report mentioned nine key findings, including, including an estimate that the current number of Turkic minority individuals held in prisons or extrajudicial internment likely surpasses half a million, although the actual figure could be higher.

As China shut down its purported vocational training centers, it increased its reliance on a different type of detention facility known as kanshousuo, which are nominally used for temporary, pretrial incarceration and interrogation.

Rian Thum, author of the report said, many individuals who were once detained in these camps have been transferred into forced labor or the official prison system, according to RFA report.

Human rights organizations and Uyghur advocacy groups have condemned China for its efforts to downplay the ongoing atrocities in Xinjiang by arranging controlled tours for diplomats and select individuals, exhibiting Uyghurs who appear to lead content lives, according to RFA.

The plight of the Uyghur population in China, primarily concentrated in Xinjiang, has attracted substantial global scrutiny. Reports indicate widespread human rights violations, including forced labor, arbitrary detentions in so-called “re-education” camps, and extensive surveillance.