How many of you know there is a genocide happening this very second?

MORE THAN 1 MILLION Uighur Muslim are being detained in concentration camps where they are brutally being forced to comply with rules that go against their religion and contravene human rights.

This has recently come to the forefront of the world's media which has caught the attention of the public; however, this has been going on for a long time when it was first noticed in 2018 where a satellite photo captured a highly secure building with 16 guard towers. Outside the compound, the building is surrounded by tall concrete walls covered in barbed wire and surveillance cameras.

Sound familiar?

Over time the site has been expanding and developing as more Uighur Muslims are vanishing.

Many journalists have tried to visit Xinjiang, however, have been stopped due to not wanting information leaking out. Many former detainees have come out sharing their experience in the concentration camps, explaining that they were forced to confess to serious crimes such as organizing terrorist attacks and sheltering terrorist. On arrival women were forced to take a urine test to check if they were pregnant and if they were, they would be forced to have an abortion. Many Uighur Muslims were interrogated and handcuffed to chairs. Isobel Young posed as a tourist in order to gain access to china's Western Xinjiang region which has been nearly impossible for journalists. There she documented her experience and spoke to a member of the public where she asked about the life of Uighurs. The man uttered "something bad has happened to them. I can't talk about it. I can't talk about it". This shows how afraid people are to speak up in fear of their life.

Uighurs are a Muslim Turkic ethnic group originating from different parts of central and east Asia. They are based in western china in a region called Xinjiang and make up nearly half of the region (approximately 12 million).

Commonly described as a re-education programme, by the Chinese government. The concentration camp serves a purpose of enforcing adherence to national ideology. Mainly directed at Uighurs, locals are told the people in these camps have problems with their thoughts. Many believe this. State-run TV has been showing the population idyllic classrooms, with grateful and changed students that can now be considered normal members of society- reinforcing this understanding that the camps are a positive, rehabilitation-like centre. There's also a separate school for children which has the same target, to combat extremism.

The government claims this re-education is necessary to prevent terrorist attacks- several have occurred carried out by Uighurs, which have unnerved the Chinese state. This includes a terrorist attack in the Chinese city of Kunming in 2014, which killed 31 in a brutal knife attack. Noticeably, after these attacks, the government started putting in place restrictions and penalties for wearing headscarves, having a beard and Islamic sounding names. This stripping of identity and belief shows a direct side to the government's re-education that cannot be concealed in a camp. Thus, it has attracted media attention, outside and inside of China. In order to preserve and upkeep the lies told to the public about what is really going on, journalists have been followed, intimidated and pressured to stop asking questions by local police.

When China's ambassador for the UK, Lui Xiaoming, was asked about the detention camps, he replied with "don't listen to fake news". It seems China is very successful at avoiding the truth and convincing the population it is a "re-education school". Many tactics, such as large-scale use of technology has monitored people's devices, and facial recognition in a high spread of places has given the state complete control. They know where people are, what they're doing, what they're thinking, and therefore, how to dictate them.

What has the world come to - where we strip certain people of basic human rights because of the fact their beliefs don't correspond with yours?

Silence is violence so please speak up about this modern-day genocide. We are the generation that will make the changes that need to happen, and we are the generation that will have our voices heard because we will not let history repeat itself again. 

More information

 US says China's repression of Uighurs is 'Genocide' (Read more)

Apparel brands and retailers who have been linked to specific cases of Uyghur forced labour

Petitions you can sign

 https://www.stopgenocide.org/close-the-camps/

https://www.change.org/p/united-nations-petition-to-free-to-muslims-in-chinese-concentration-camps