China forcibly relocates Uyghur women and girls for factory work

o: Roy Choi  under creative commons 

Considering that the Universal declaration of human rights and employment policy of convention prohibits the discrimination on the basis of such distinctions as sex, race or social origin, or other status on employment which includes the freedom of choice of employment and favorable conditions of work[1]. The Chinese government totally denied Uyghurs freedom of choice of employment and forcibly removing large scale numbers of Uyghurs girls to work in inland Chinese factories instead of offering jobs in East Turkistan. In order to implement this so-called “labor relocation” plan, Chinese government has organized special task forces to persuade Uyghur farmers to relocate. With such extensive propaganda and task forces, many Uyghur farmers are still not convinced, instead their daughters are taken away forcefully, contradictory to Chinese media’s claim that Uyghur youth go to inner China voluntarily.[2]

Local government, local labor department and local women’s committee and government officials all together involved with mobilizing and persuading these Uyghur youth and their parents to take up the ‘job offers’  For implementing this policy, XUAR and local governments have developed various strategies with different “excuses.” For example, specific working groups have been organized to persuade Uyghur farmers and their children to leave their homeland and propagandize government slogans such as “send one person, save one person’s meal, learn one technique, make money, rich one family, move large scale”.[3] Every school teacher is asked to “find at least one Uyghur girls” for relocating to inner China. Every rural Uyghur family is asked to “send at least one Uyghur girl” to relocate to inner China. As a result many of the Uyghur farmers are confused by Chinese government’s colorful propaganda and facing XUAR and local government’s soft and hard tactics, have no choice but abiding by the government policy by force and sending their children to inner China as claimed by an informant of FRA.

“Our job is become recruiting girls, not teaching at the class...” said middle school teacher Ibrahim to International Uyhgur Human Rights Foundation, calling from Kashgar city Tokkuzak County.

If all of the above measures are not efficient enough to persuade Uyghur farmers to send their children to inner China, then the Chinese government would punish local Uyghur people with heavy fines or detention. For instance, in order to relocate Uyghur youth to inner China, XUAR and local government have used various tactics. For persuading Uyghur youth and their parents to ‘take up the job offer’, Chinese government have used soft tactics such as establishing ‘task forces’ to persuade the Uyghur farmers and their children,  offering some benefits such as waiving the Uyghur farmers’ ‘hashar’ (forced free labor), and offering the Uyghur youth with urban ‘hukou’ (residency) etc.

For those Uyghurs who refuse to give their daughters away without being ‘convinced’ by the ‘offers’, Chinese government have used hard tactics, such as intimidation and even detention. The intimidation tactics include forbidding girls from getting married or getting marriage certificates, depriving them and their family of their farming land or asking their parents to pay heavy fines from anywhere between 3,000 Yuan to 5,000 YuanThe Azat in charge for the young Uyghurs women workers in China- Korea Joint-venture Shoes Factory, Qingdao City said: “it is easy to force farmers to send their daughters to here, if government confiscate one or two farmer’s land or detained few days who refused to cooperate, other farmers are afraid and would agreed to send their daughters, because nothing is more important for them than land.. So if the girls escape and going back to home government will able to resend them again...” [4] 

Maryem, who is 19, interviewed secretly by East Turkistan Information Center and said “if we work in our farm we can make more money than this. Here we can not get payment even, they make us slave. I have so regret that I came, but we are not allowed to go back...”

Government officials even recruited middle school girls to fulfill the quota, despite that they have to participate 10 years compulsory education in China. Some Uyghur schools had been closed and the leftover students added to the Chinese students in Chinese schools.

“We have no girls in my class; all of them have been sending to work in inland China .And boys added to the Chinese students.”  Said Nurmamaet who is in grade 7 in Kashgar city Tokkuzak County at the phone interview arranged by International Human Rights Foundation.

In response to the exaggerated Chinese media that these girls learned new techniques and they will open their own factory in Xinjiang, Mr. Cai, who is in charge for the recruiting Uyghur girls for the factories in Chingdao city told journalist who work for East Turkistan Information Center: “ everything is government propaganda, believe me these girls cannot learn any techniques here, they do the same job all the time like sewing panties or sewing something else or other,  and they don’t speak Chinese. These girls are very poor they have no money for opening factory even if they go back. They can be only cheap worker for here, I can bring back them again when they finish the term if they go back”  Forcibly transferring young Uyghurs to the inland China for compulsory cheap labor  through threatening them with heavy fines is inconsistent with international standards of human rights that “freedom of choice of employment“ and Chinese labor laws that  committed crimes such as the “use of violence , threat or illegal deprival of personal freedom to force labor”

 According to Chinese labor law article 96 illegal deprival of personal freedom to force labor is considered as a crime and states:

“The responsible person of the employer involved in any one of the following cases shall be taken by a public security department into custody of 15 days, fined or given warning, and criminal responsibilities shall be fixed upon whoever commits a crime: (1) use of violence, threat or illegal deprival of personal freedom to force labor”[5]

 However, Uyghur farmers in East Turkistan and Uyghur girls that relocated to inland Chinese factories excluded implementation of these laws.

The Uyghur Women Worker in Tianjin liannier evening dress factory said:

“No one wants to come here; all of them were forced to come”[6].

The Uyghurs women worker in Tianjin Shinghao sweater factory said:

“Our parents work many years for 5,000 Yuan- how would we be able to pay that much money? Before, they were asking for 3,000 Yuan and now they are asking for 5,000 Yuan if we do not want to work and go ask to go back”[7] 

According to East Turkistan Information Center, 60% of the girls in Chinese factories are under 16, most of these children were forcibly transferred to inland China from their homeland

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[1] Universal Declaration of Human Rights, employment policy of convention article 1

[2] Radio Free Asia, “Uyghur Youth are Being Forced to Relocate to Inner China with a Policy of ‘taking one person from one family’”, dated 21 March, 2007, http://www.rfa.org/uyghur/xewerler/tepsili_xewer/2007/03/21/xitaygha-yotkesh, accessed 5 April, 2007.

[3]  “XinJiang farmers relocation policy research” Xinjiang autonomous region farm balancing group, September 5, 2005.  http://www.sannong.gov.cn/fxvc/ldlzv/200510261241 accessed at November 25th 2007.

 

[4] East Turkistan Information Center interview with Azat, the person in charge for the young uyghur women workers in China- Korea Joint-venture Shoes Factory, Qingdao City. July 18, 2007

[5] Chinese labor law article 96

[6] East Turkistan information center video interview with Uyghur women in Tianjin liannier evening dress factory,  July 22, 2007

[7] East Turkistan information center video interview with Uyghur women in Tianjin Shing Hao sweater factory, July 24, 2007