Uyghurs have highest rate of imprisonment in world: report

May 2, 2024 | Radio Free Asia | By Irade for RFA Uyghur

That’s also more than three higher than in El Salvador, which has the world’s highest known incarceration rate at 1,086 per 100,000 people, according to the April 25 report by the Uyghur Human Right Project, or UHRP.

The actual situation in Xinjiang may even be worse, said UHRP senior researcher Ben Carrdus, who wrote the report. 

“These are just people who have been put in prison. It doesn’t include people who might still be in internment camps,” he told Radio Free Asia, referring to the estimated 1.8 million Uyghurs and others arbitrarily detained in what the Chinese government said were vocational training centers.

When China says it’s ruled by law, it actually means that the law is whatever the Chinese Communist Party wants it to be, Carrdus said.

“Using laws doesn’t mean they are using justice. What they’ve done is use the instruments against the Uyghur people,” he said. “Thousands and thousands of people have been sentenced to prison mostly through the courts where China has used very unjust rules.“

The UHRP believes Uyghurs receive severe sentences, such as at least 10 years in prison for minor actions like studying the Quran or teaching it to children, so that the rate of death sentences among them may be higher.

Carrdus urged the international community not to forget the Uyghurs. 

“I can say that with 100% confidence, things are not getting better,” he said, adding that although authorities in Xinjiang have been closing down the internment camps, they’ve been sending Uyghurs to prisons instead. 

Read the full article: https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/imprisonment-rate-report-05022024144951.html