China has expanded its network of detention camps for its Uighur minority despite insisting the “re-education” system was being scaled back, a new report says.
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute report says there are 380 suspected facilities in the Xinjiang region, about 40% more than previous estimates.
China says its aim is to tackle poverty and religious extremism in Xinjiang, but the United States has likened the centers to concentration camps.
Rights groups say at least a million people have been incarcerated in the system, the BBC reported.
Uighurs are the largest Turkic-speaking indigenous community in Xinjiang, followed by Kazakhs. Uighurs and members of other mostly Muslim ethnic groups in Xinjiang have been subjected to the Chinese roundups and placed in concentration-camp-style facilities since 2017, according to Radio FreeEurope/RadioLiberty.
The ASPI report identifies 100 more detention sites than previous investigations have shown, based on analysis of satellite imagery, interviews with eyewitnesses, media reports and official documents.
More than 60 detention sites were expanded between July 2019 and July 2020, while 14 camps are still under construction, the report said.
Around half of the new centers are higher security facilities, which could suggest a shift towards prison-style facilities, report author Nathan Ruser told the BBC.
“The findings of this research contradict Chinese officials’ claims that all ‘trainees’ from so-called vocational training centers had ‘graduated’ by late 2019,” he said.
U.S. lawmakers earlier this month voted to ban imports from Xinjiang, citing the alleged use of systematic forced labor.
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