Washington (AsiaNews/Agencies) – The Chinese government is forcing young Uyghur women to leave Xinjiang and travel to work in far off factories. Rebiya Kadeer, exiled in the United States since 2005 after having spent 5 years in prison for having defended the rights of the Chinese Uyghur’s has appealed to the US Congress Commission for Human Rights to monitor these transfers and intervene with Beijing to stop these deportations.
Kadeer explained that 240,000 people, mostly women single and ranging in age from 16 to 25, from southern Xinjiang were the Uyghur are still a majority over the Han, are being transferred under the guise of "employment opportunities".
Once far from their homes the young women are being exploited, as "cheap slave labour and potential sex workers” and faced harsh treatment with 12-hour work days and often saw wages withheld for months. The government “broke no opposition” in this policy, which many Uyghurs "see as one of the most humiliating policies to date" by Chinese authorities. There is also the suspicion – she adds – that they aim to force these women to marry Han men.
Kadeer nominated for the last year Nobel Peace Prize, is admired by many but is considered a criminal in China and her children who still live in the country are subjected to routine persecution, charges and arrests.