U.N. group highlights enforced disappearances of Uyghurs in China

An estimated 900,000 to 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Muslim groups have been detained in high security camps

GENEVA, Switzerland – A U.N. group has found more evidence of forced disappearances of Uighurs in China’s Xinjiang autonomous region.

The U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) has said that China has intensified its crackdown in Xinjiang since 2017, affecting the region’s Turkic-speaking residents.

An estimated 900,000 to 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Muslim groups have been detained in high-security camps, where they have been subjected to severe human rights abuses.

China claims to close these camps by 2019, but other evidence suggests that the system has evolved, releasing some detainees and imprisoning others.

From 2017 to 2022, more than 540,000 individuals were prosecuted in Xinjiang, a significant number given the total population of 25.8 million.

Details about the conditions of detainees are difficult for outsiders to ascertain due to information restrictions imposed by the Chinese government.

The U.N. Group plays a central role in understanding the situation by investigating cases of arbitrary detention around the world.

 In the past year, the group has investigated several cases involving Uyghurs.

The U.N. panel investigated the cases of three imprisoned Uighur intellectuals – editor Qurban Mamut, entrepreneur Ekpar Asat and retired physician Gulshan Abbas.

The Chinese government did not provide any information to the UN panel.

It has expressed concerns about their welfare and whether they received a fair trial.

On International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, many civil society organizations drew attention to enforced disappearances in China and called for the release of detained human rights defenders, Uyghurs, and Tibetan environmentalists.