After the Holocaust ended, we swore that nothing like it would ever happen again. Unfortunately, history has a way of repeating itself. 

This time around, it’s not Jewish people being persecuted. It is the Uyghur Muslims in China. The Uyghurs are a Muslim minority group that reside in Xinjiang, China. In 2017 China began to establish concentration camps in Xinjiang. China implemented these camps to retaliate against the extremism in Xinjiang.

Other minority groups other than the Uyghurs have been persecuted against. The Kyrgyz and Kazakhs have also been forced into these concentration camps.

The Chinese government strongly believes that Islam must be eradicated from China.

The Chinese government had denied the existence of these concentration camps until photographs of the camps surfaced. The Chinese government branded them as voluntary “re-education” camps. At least 85 of these concentration camps have been discovered within Xinjiang. 

According to Gay McDougall, a member of the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, an estimate of over 2 million Uyghurs and Muslim minorities have been forced into these camps.

Many Muslim-majority countries have gone as far as defending the Chinese government for their shameful crimes. These government leaders need to be held accountable for causing the deaths and torturing of thousands of innocent people.

The Uyghurs have been exploited for cheap labor, skinned alive, forced to eat pork and drink alcohol, forced into having abortions, raped, and forced to chant sayings that go against Islam. The women in these camps have been forcibly sterilized, and forced into marriages with Chinese men.

The U.S has since condemned China at the U.N General Assembly. Over 30 countries agreed that the concentration camps are repressive. The U.S House has also passed a bill which bans imports from China that have been made with Uyghur forced labor.

The awareness for the genocide happening in Xinjiang has been gaining more attention. People took to social media to boycott the Disney remake of Mulan which was partially filmed in Xinjiang. 

Although many have acknowledged the suffering of the Uyghurs, not much has been done about it. Uyghurs are still being detained and tortured. The only way anything will change is if countries begin to step in and put an end to this crisis.