After 4 years in detention, Uyghur brothers forced to work at factories in Xinjiang
January 12, 2022Two Uyghur brothers detained in a Xinjiang internment camp for four years before being released in August 2021 were rearrested just a week later and are now being forced to work in factories, local officials and a Uyghur in exile who has knowledge of the situation said.
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Authorities arrested Eziz Abdulla, a farmer living in the village’s Aydinkol hamlet, along with his two sons, Abduqahar Eziz and Ablikim Eziz, for “illegal gatherings” while they were watering their crops in a field in 2017, the source said.
“At that time, from January to March of 2017, not only the father and sons, but also 20 percent of the other residents of the village were taken to the ‘re-education’ camps for illegal religious activities and illegal gatherings, and spreading harmful information,” the Uyghur in exile said.
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A year later, Tursungul learned that her two sons, one in his 30s and the other in his mid-20s, were in a training center, the Uyghur source said.
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In August 2021, local police told Tursungul that her two sons were going to be released, the Uyghur source said. But just a week after they were freed, police apprehended both sons again, without explanation.
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A police officer in Sampul village confirmed the information RFA had received about the two brothers and said they had been sent to Lop and Kashgar, which is also in Xinjiang, to perform forced labor.
“The two sons were released from training, and now they are working by government arrangement in factories in Lop and Kashgar,” he said.
The police officer also confirmed that their father, Eziz Abdulla, had been sentenced to 13 years in prison four months after his arrest and was serving a sentence in Tumshuq, a city in the western part of Xinjiang.