World Uyghur Congress, 05 February 2021

WUC – Submission to Senate FADT Committee

The present report provides information to the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation  Committee the Customs Amendment of the Australian Parliament ahead of the Banning Goods  Produced by Uyghur Forced Labour Bill 2020 inquiry, with the view that the Committee  members take into consideration the information regarding the treatment of the Uyghur people  in China.

• The Chinese government is committing severe human rights abuses against the Uyghurs and  other Turkic peoples, including the mass internment of between 1.8 – 3 million of Uyghurs  and Turkic peoples; a policy intended to eliminate Islamic religious practices by criminalising  nearly all aspects of Islam; the elimination of cultural expression by destroying physical  structures such as Uyghur mosques, graveyards and shrines; the forced sterilisation and  abortion of Uyghur women in an attempt to reduce the Uyghur population, supported by a  system of mass surveillance. 
• The Chinese government has implemented what it calls “poverty alleviation programmes”,  such as the Xinjiang Aid. which in practice subjugates Uyghurs and Turkic individuals to  forced labour. 
• Along with a so-called public “re-education” scheme that involves arbitrary detainment  accompanied by “vocational training”, indoctrination, as well as transfers to factories nearby  or inside the camps. 
• Uyghur forced labour is pervasive in the textile and garment sector, as well as in cotton  picking. As East Turkistan accounts for over 20% of the world’s cotton production, this has  severe implications for global supply chains.  

The report can be read in full here.