China is separating tens of thousands of Muslim children from their parents in the restive western region of Xinjiang by placing them in boarding schools as part of the latest stage of a mass internment programme, according to new research.
About 1.5m Uighurs, Kazakhs and other mostly Muslim minorities in Xinjiang are being held in re-education camps, in a Chinese government “deradicalisation” drive that has been condemned by the UN, western governments and human rights groups.
The Financial Times reported last year that families in Xinjiang were being forcibly separated, with authorities placing the young children of parents who were in the camps in de facto orphanages.