UN rapporteur considers allegations against China over forced labor in Xinjiang “reasonable”

The United Nations rapporteur Tomoya Obokata considers “reasonable” the complaints of international organizations about forced labor and repression against ethnic minorities in the region of Xinjiang, where the Uyghurs, a minority of Muslim confession, reside.

Obokata considers it “reasonable” to conclude that among Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other ethnic minorities, episodes of forced labor have been recorded in sectors such as agriculture and manufacturing in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region.

It also considers that there are two fundamental mechanisms by which forced labor is carried out: vocational training centers, where minorities are detained and subjected, and the labor transfer system.

“Similar arrangements have also been detected in the Tibet Autonomous Region, where an extensive labor transfer program has displaced mostly farmers, herders and other rural workers into low-skilled and low-paid jobs,” said Obokata, who is in charge of the UN study on new forms of slavery.

For his part, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin dismissed the report on Wednesday, asserting that the UN special rapporteur had abused his power to “discredit China and act as a political tool of anti-China forces,” as reported by Bloomberg.

The Chinese authorities have launched a series of measures in the Xinjiang region that have caused friction between the Asian giant and the international community, especially the United States, which has accused Beijing of committing human rights violations and even genocide against the Uyghur population.