UN expert concludes 'forced labour' has taken place in Xinjiang

News 11:08 18 Aug, 2022
UN expert concludes 'forced labour' has taken place in Xinjiang

It is "reasonable to conclude" that forced labour of members of minority groups has taken place in China's western Xinjiang region, the UN's top expert on slavery said in a report released this week, Qazet.az reports according to prompting a fierce response from Beijing.

The findings were "based on an independent assessment of available information", the United Nations Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, Tomoya Obokata, said in a report that he shared on his Twitter account on Tuesday.

"The Special Rapporteur regards it as reasonable to conclude that forced labour among Uighur, Kazakh and other ethnic minorities in sectors such as agriculture and manufacturing has been occurring in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region of China," it said.

China rejects all accusations of abuse of Uyghurs and other Muslim minority groups in Xinjiang.