Separated from their families, thousands of Uighur Muslims coerced to work in Chinese factories for low wages in the western region of Xinjiang.
A recent article by the New York Times shed light on the working conditions of Uighurs in the region, revealing China's campaign to convert the minority group into “an army of obedient workers.”
"Official documents, interviews with experts, and visits to Xinjiang indicate that local plans uproot villagers, restrict their movements and pressure them to stay at jobs," the New York Times reported on Monday.
Villagers from Muslim minorities receive job training for weeks or months similar to those used in the indoctrination camps before going to the factories. According to the article, if they refuse to participate in the labor force, their families can face punishment.
Chinese officials in the region grade the candidates from most to least trustworthy before the recruitment. The least trustworthy reportedly had to attend indoctrination classes in the evenings, while only the most trusted could leave the county for work.
The forced labor camp inmates practice military drills, learn patriotic Chinese songs, and listen to lectures warning against “Islamic zeal and preaching gratitude to the Communist Party.”
The Muslim-majority region is the country's cotton producing hub, aiming to make more textiles and garments by placing interned Uighurs into labor.
Thousands of poor farmers, small traders and idle villagers of working age are assigned to stitch clothes, make shoes, sweep streets or fill other jobs.
"Two thirds of 43 factory employees whose wages were included in online records earned $114 a month in a township in southern Xinjiang," Adrian Zenz, an expert on Xinjiang who has studied the labor programs said.
On the other hand, according to Chinese official media workers make upwards of $400 per month.
China's Xinjiang region is home to around 10 million Uighur Muslims. The Turkic Muslim group, which makes up around 45% of Xinjiang's population, has long accused China's authorities of cultural, religious and economic discrimination.
Up to one million people, or about 7% of the Muslim population in Xinjiang, have been incarcerated in an expanding network of "political re-education" camps, according to U.S. officials and UN experts.
In a report last September, Human Rights Watch accused Beijing of carrying out a "systematic campaign of human rights violations" against Uighur Muslims in the region.
