Xinjiang: The leak of the database from sources in the Uighur exile community follows the release in November of a classified blueprint on how the mass detention system really works.
Now, a newly revealed database exposes in extraordinary detail the main reasons for the detentions of Muslim families. The 137-page document leaked by a whistleblower to several media outlets appears to list the details of 311 Uighur Muslims sent to China’s controversial camps.
The surveillance and imprisonment of the individuals from Karakax County in China’s Xinjiang region is documented in intricate detail. The list of reasons for detention includes growing beard, wearing veil, praying regularly, visiting banned websites or even having too many children. Applying for a passport to travel abroad have also been included.
The document corroborates several investigations which point to a network of detention camps holding at least one million people.
“Xinjiang is the worst where a million or more Uighur and Turkic Muslims are in detention for forced indoctrination basically to pressure them to renounce Islam and their cultural traditions and even their language,” said Kenneth Roth, Human Rights Watch.
China initially denied the existence of the camps but later described them as ‘vocational training centres’ that are necessary to combat ‘terrorism’.