Australian researchers find China is still expanding controversial detention centres
China is continuing to build its controversial detention camps in the predominantly Muslim province Xinjiang, according to a new report by an Australian think tank.
Its findings are likely to further fuel criticism of China's treatment of its Uighur population in the province who in recent years been subjected to religious and ethnic persecution by authorities.
At least 61 suspected detention facilities indicated signs of new construction from July 2019 to July 2020, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) said in a new report.
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A file photo of a guard tower and barbed wire fences are around a detention centre in western China's Xinjiang region. AP
An estimated 1 million or more members of China's Muslim ethnic minority groups are held in internment camps and prisons. Inside they are subjected to ideological discipline, forced to denounce their religion and language and physically abused.
Fourteen detention centres were being built this year after Xinjiang authorities reported that all detainees had "graduated," said ASPI, which has been monitoring the camps for two years.
The study found about half of the recently expanded camps had enhanced security features, which suggested a shift to more prison-style facilities.
One 100,000-square-metre camp that opened near Kashgar in January had a 13 five-storey residential buildings surrounded by a 14-metre high wall.
Overall, ASPI identified 380 suspected detention centres built since 2017 in the region, which is home to an estimated 10 million Uighurs.
Satellite imagery of the new Chinese detention facility near Kashgar taken in January 2020. ( Maxar via Google Earth) Supplied
About 70 camps appear to have reduced security by removing internal fencing or perimeter walls, the report found.
Reports from media organisation have repeatedly found that people inside the internment camps and prisons, which activists call "black factories", are making sportswear and other clothing for popular US brands.
China has detained an estimated 1 million or more members of its Muslim ethnic minority groups in internment camps.
In July, confronting footage of shackled prisoners who appeared to be UIghur was released showing them being herded on to trains in western China.
Drone footage of hundreds of blindfolded and shackled men, who appeared to be Uighur and other minority ethnic groups was shown to China's ambassador to the UK BBC
The images triggered a storm of protest against Beijing's treatment of its minority citizens.
The government describes them as vocational training facilities aimed at countering Muslim radicalism and separatist tendencies.
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