The International Labor Organization has decided to send staff to the Xinjiang region to assess the situation. The biggest problem: China has to let the mission into the country.
Amid new reports of Beijing's systematic repression of the Uighurs, the International Labor Organization (ILO) has decided to send a "technical advisory mission" to China. The UN specialized agency's General Assembly adopted a committee statement in Geneva deploring "the application of all repressive measures against the Uyghurs which have a discriminatory impact on their employment opportunities and their treatment as a religious and ethnic minority in China."
He said China must immediately stop this and allow the ILO mission into the country - by September 1, the UN organization should submit a report assessing the situation. Chinese government representative Qian Xiaoyan said the ILO committees should not be misused as a "political tool by some Western countries to slander and denigrate China."
Evidence of internment of Uyghurs
Recently, an international media consortium with the participation of SPIEGEL had published further evidence of the mass internment of Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang . Thousands of photos, speeches, and statements by authorities provide evidence of torture and the existence of a firing order, among other things. According to human rights activists, at least one million Uyghurs have been interned in re-education camps, where they must also perform forced labor.read more