New information emerged that women that are kept in the Kazanqi Ethnic Handicraft Production Base, which has been recently converted into a camp, are forced to work.
Last week, Bitter Winter reported about the Kazanqi Ethnic Handicraft Production Base in Xinjiang’s Yining, a complex of 16 buildings that was turned into a “transformation through education” camp for women in May this year. The complex is 20,000 square meters vast and used to be a famous spot for tourists to buy handicraft products. Now, the territory houses over 800 detained women, mostly Uyghur and under 45 years, who are imprisoned in horrible conditions for indefinite time.
According to the newly acquired information, the authorities kept three of the factories on the territory of the new camp and now force the detained women to perform free labor. The detainees are compelled to work in a sewing factory as well as in two other factories that produce pillows and cakes.
An Uyghur man told Bitter Winter that his wife was taken to a “transformation through education” camp in July 2017, and the authorities informed him at the time that she would only be kept there for 15 days. However, the woman was recently transferred to this new camp and is still in detention to date.
A 60-year-old Uyghur woman said in tears that her two daughters were also being held in the same camp.
Reported by Li Zaili
