More than 180 cases traced to garment factory where Uighurs must take up work placements
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China’s largest coronavirus outbreak in months appears to have emerged in a factory in Xinjiang linked to forced labour and the government’s controversial policies toward Uighur residents.
More than 180 cases of Covid-19 documented this past week in Shufu county in southern Xinjiang can be traced back to a local factory that was built in 2018 as part of government “poverty alleviation” efforts, a campaign that researchers and rights advocates describe as coercive. The initiative sees Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in the far-western region tracked and given work placements that they have little choice but to take up.
