China accused of forcibly separating Muslim children from families

(Patria) - All eyes are on China due to suspicions that it is systematically separating children from their families, religion, and language, and allegedly rapidly building boarding schools for their accommodation, write the British Guardian and CNN.

Efforts to 'separate children from their roots' are happening in parallel with the forced detention of about a million Uyghurs from the western Xinjiang region in camps, as well as mass human rights violations of this minority group, reports the BBC.

One mother shows a photo of her three daughters and says she doesn't know who is taking care of them: 'We have no contact at all,' she says. Another woman shows a photo of her four missing children and says she heard they were placed in an orphanage.

The investigation led by the BBC is based on publicly available documents and dozens of interviews with family members living outside China. In 60 separate interviews, parents and relatives reveal details of the disappearance of more than 100 Uyghur children, the largest ethnic group in the region, which is predominantly Muslim.

In one settlement alone, more than 400 children have lost one or both parents – they are either in prison or in a camp.

Chinese state media have called the forced detention of Uyghurs in camps 'fake news'.

'Despite China's efforts to present what is really happening in Xinjiang, some Western media and politicians are persistently spreading fake news,' says Global Times, a tabloid of the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, People's Daily.

The Guardian writes that China initially denied the existence of camps in Xinjiang, where about 12 million Muslims live. However, last year it began calling them 'vocational education and training centers' where forcibly detained individuals learn languages and culture, and their purpose is also 'counter-terrorism'.

China recently invited the media to visit the camps, but strictly controlled their access to parts of the buildings and the people staying there, writes the Guardian.