Documenting the disappeared: Relatives, friends build database of missing Uyghurs

November 01, 2018

Globe and Mail Nathan VanderKlippe

One woman spent two years working at an international school in the United Arab Emirates. Another woman purchased a SIM card for her sister. One man chatted with his wife in Kazakhstan on WeChat, the Chinese media app. A sister and brother married people with foreign passports.

Family and friends outside China have struggled for months to learn any information about loved ones detained in Xinjiang.

Uyghurs around the world are uploading personal video testimonials, sending information to Uyghur organizations and adding names of the vanished to a small but growing Xinjiang Victims Database, a nascent catalogue of Muslims missing in western China.