Many of you will be aware of the ongoing and horrific persecution of the Uighur Muslim minority in China’s Xinjiang province.
This week thousands of photographs from the heart of China’s highly secretive system of mass incarceration in Xinjiang, as well as a shoot-to-kill policy for those who try to escape, were among a huge cache of data hacked from police computer servers in the region.
The cache reveals, in unprecedented detail, China’s use of “re-education” camps and formal prisons as two separate but related systems of mass detention for Uyghurs - and seriously calls into question its well-honed public narrative about both.
The BBC has compiled an in depth up to date report on the persecution, based on the recent data cache. I must warn you, it is a harrowing read but it is vital that as much attention is brought to the plight of the Uighurs as possible. You can read the report here:
Click here to read the BBC’s report
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights is currently in China on a visit that will include travelling to the remote Xinjiang province. Speaking in Parliament on Tuesday I asked the Minister of State for Asia and the Middle East, Amanda Milling MP, if the Government will commit to a review of the UN High Commissioner’s report into her visit.