6.4 ‘CAMP TO LABOUR’ The testimony of former detainees shows that for many, there is a clear compulsory labour component to the system of detention and of “transformation-through-education” targeting Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other ethnic minority groups in Xinjiang. This component is also indicated in the Telegram, which states that if a detainee was designated ready for release, the group that did the final evaluation also determined whether the detainee would enter a “skills improvement class” for “intensive training” before being released.618 Despite this being described by the Chinese authorities as a “voluntary” skills training and job placement programme, some detainees who spoke to Amnesty described arrangements that left them with little or no choice or control but to accept employment or “training placements” with minimal pay, poor working conditions, a discriminatory work environment, and often continued restrictions on their freedom of movement under threat of further punishment. These arrangements, therefore, should be considered in the context of forced or compulsory labour.619
FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOUR International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 29 defines “forced or compulsory labour” as “all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily”.620 The following factors can be used to identify forced labour in practice: The actual presence or threat of a penalty, including violence; financial penalties (such as nonpayment of wages); loss of rights or privileges; denunciation to authorities and deportation; exclusion from future employment; or deprivation of food, shelter, or other necessities. Lack of consent to work, including restriction of freedom of movement or physical confinement in the work location; psychological compulsion; withholding and non-payment of wages; or confiscation of identity documents.621 An ILO Committee has stated that a penalty “need not be in the form of penal sanctions, but might take the form also of a loss of rights or privileges”.622 “Voluntarily” is less clearly defined, but the ILO Committee of Experts has stressed that in “considering the freedom to ‘offer oneself voluntarily’ for work or service, account must be taken of the legislative and practical framework which guarantees or limits that freedom… An external constraint or indirect coercion interfering with a worker’s freedom to ‘offer himself voluntarily’ may result not only from an act of the authorities, such as a statutory instrument, but also from an employer’s practice, e.g. where migrant workers are induced by deceit, false promises and retention of identity documents or forced to remain at the disposal of an employer; such practices represent a clear violation of the Convention.”623
Amnesty International interviewed 11 former detainees who were transferred to different types of labour after their release from a camp, including three who were sent to work in factories.624 A few were sent to work in village administration offices, police stations, or other government buildings, 618 ”The Telegram” (previously cited), para 18 619 The ILO has identified 11 “indicators” that, alone or in conjunction with others, point to the possible existence of forced labour: abuse of vulnerability; deception; restriction of movement; isolation; physical and sexual violence; intimidation and threats; retention of identity documents; withholding of wages; debt bondage; abusive working and living conditions; and excessive overtime; International Labour Organization, “ILO indicators of Forced Labour,” www.ilo.org/global/topics/forced-labour/publications/WCMS_203832/lang--en/index.htm 620 ILO Convention 29 concerning Forced or Compulsory Labour (1930), Article 2(1); the convention is not ratified by China, despite it being one of the ILO’s eight “fundamental” conventions that set out core international labour standards, identified by the ILO Governing Body as covering subjects considered to be fundamental principles and rights at work. Therefore China, as a member of the ILO, is still obliged to comply with the convention’s provisions despite the lack of ratification. Out of 187 ILO member states, China is one of only eight that has not ratified the Forced Labour Convention. See also Article 8(3) of the ICCPR, which prohibits anybody being required to perform forced or compulsory labour. 621 International Labour Office, A Global Alliance Against Forced Labour: Global Report under the follow-up to the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and rights at Work, 2005, p6 and par14. 622 International Labour Conference, 1979 General Survey of the Reports relating to the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) and the Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1975, (No. 105), Report of the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations, 65th Session, Geneva, 1979, Report III, Para 21. 623 International Labour Conference, 2007 General Survey of the Reports relating to the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) and the Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1975, (No. 105), Report of the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations, 96th Session, Geneva, 2007, Report III, Paras 38 – 40. 624 Amnesty International interviews.
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“LIKE WE WERE ENEMIES IN A WAR” CHINA’S MASS INTERNMENT, TORTURE AND PERSECUTION OF MUSLIMS IN XINJIANG Amnesty International
