China: Internment

(asked on 21st February 2024) - View Source

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have made an assessment of the number of internment camps in (1) China, (2) Xinjiang, and (3) Tibet.


Answered by
 Portrait
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
This question was answered on 7th March 2024

The UK Government closely monitors the human rights situation in China, where people face widespread restrictions and violations on human rights and fundamental freedoms. With regard to the situation in Xinjiang, in 2018 the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination estimated "upwards of a million people were being held in so-called counter-extremism centres and another two million had been forced into what the Chinese refer to as 're-education camps' for political and cultural indoctrination". Regarding Tibet, UN Special Rapporteurs reported in February 2023 that "around a million" Tibetan children had been separated from their families to assimilate them into majority Han culture. The UK Government continues to lead international efforts to hold China to account, including through the UN and bilaterally. The Foreign Secretary raised human rights concerns in his meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on 16 February.

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