Voice of America – by Asim Kashgarian
WASHINGTON – Coerced labor among Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other ethnic groups has been taking place in China’s Xinjiang and Tibet, according to a report released by Tomoya Obokata, the U.N. special rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery.
Special rapporteurs, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, are “independent experts appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council with the mandate to monitor, advise and publicly report” on human rights situations in specific countries and on human rights violations worldwide.
The report, “Contemporary forms of slavery affecting persons belonging to ethnic, religious and linguistic minority communities,” released Tuesday, found some instances of forced labor in Xinjiang and Tibet “may amount to enslavement.”
“Further, given the nature and extent of powers exercised over affected workers during forced labor, including excessive surveillance, abusive living and working conditions, restriction of movement through internment, threats, physical and/or sexual violence and other inhuman or degrading treatment, some instances may amount to enslavement as a crime against humanity, meriting a further independent analysis,” the report said.
According to the report, China implemented two state-mandated systems to subject local people to forced labor. They include a system through vocational training centers where “minorities are detained and subjected to work placements” and a method of “poverty alleviation through labor transfer” that transfers surplus rural laborers “into secondary or tertiary sector work,” the report stated.
The report also determined a similar forced labor system has been established in Tibet “where an extensive labor transfer program has shifted mainly farmers, herders and other rural workers into low-skilled and low-paid employment.”
Beijing has described these programs as ways to create job opportunities for minorities to enhance their incomes. But the report said the “involuntary nature of work rendered by affected communities” has been present in many cases in Xinjiang and Tibet.
Some think tanks, rights organizations and the U.S. have accused China of Uyghur forced labor in recent years. In June, the U.S. government implemented the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act to ban imports of products related to forced labor from Xinjiang.
Beijing has long denied the accusation of forced labor in Xinjiang and said the labor arrangements in the region are only for poverty alleviation and that people of different ethnic groups can choose their work freely. Click here to read more.