Xinjiang: Detainees given prolonged sentences after Uyghur camps converted into formal prisons
- In Reports
- 03:54 PM, Jan 25, 2023
- Myind Staff
Several Uyghur camps in China's Xinjiang have been converted into formal prisons and the detainees have been given lengthy prison sentences, US-based magazine Foreign Affairs reported.
Under the guise of a poverty alleviation campaign, Beijing has been forcing tens of thousands of rural Uyghurs out of their villages and into factories.
According to Foreign Affairs, the infrastructure of control that made southern Xinjiang look like a war zone a few years ago, intrusive policing, military patrols, and checkpoints, is less visible now. But that is because digital surveillance systems based on mobile phones, facial recognition, biometric databases, QR codes, and other tools that identify and geo-locate the population have proved just as effective at monitoring and controlling local residents.
An Uyghur man named Jamal, in a recent interview with Washington, D.C. based radio network Voice of America (VOA), said that the Chinese policy on passports in Xinjiang is to not let anyone cross borders and to keep everyone intact inside the region, Switzerland-based Geneva Daily reported.
Jamal in the interview made it clear that China does not issue new passports to the Uyghurs. Uyghurs do not speak to the media even after leaving China due to the fear of retaliation by Chinese authorities, he said.
He said that all Uyghur passport holders need to be able to present a consent document from the provincial authorities at any customs post in China.
Upon producing a Chinese ID, passport and consent document to the customs officers, an Uyghur is taken to a specially designated place for Uyghurs. His/her documents are then authenticated by the police authorities, he said.
Image courtesy: Representative image
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