STATEMENT ON FURTHER REPORTS OF FORCIBLE TRANSFER AND FORCED LABOUR SCHEMES IN THE XINJIANG UYGHUR AUTONOMOUS REGION
A report released today authored by IPAC adviser Adrian Zenz and reported by the BBC and others has shed new light onto the coercive labour transfer schemes taking place in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
Newly-uncovered evidence documents state-run schemes to forcibly uproot, assimilate and reduce the population density of ethnic and religious minorities in the Xinjiang region through coercive recruitment into labour transfer schemes. The report estimates that these schemes have led to the forcible relocation of hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs and other minorities in recent years which, if proven, could meet international criteria for the Crimes Against Humanity of Forcible Transfer and Persecution.
The coercive labour transfer scheme is distinct from the well documented use of detainees in Xinjiang’s ‘reeducation’ camps for forced labour. This adds to a mounting body of evidence revealing egregious human rights abuses against the Uyghurs and other minorities, including arbitrary detention, mass sterilization and the systematic torture and sexual abuse of those imprisoned in Xinjiang region’s vast prison camp network.
The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China is united in condemnation of these abuses and reiterates its call for a UN led or international legal investigation into crimes against humanity and genocide. While such a possibility remains remote, we commit to work in a coordinated way to ensure that individual states undertake their own investigations, and take all necessary measures to ensure that supply chains are not tainted by forced labour from the Uyghur Region and elsewhere in China.
