Uyghur forced laborer died at factory in China’s Xinjiang, officials say
December 28, 2021A Uyghur woman who had been interned in a detention camp in northwestern China’s Xinjiang region died of a stomach ailment in September 2020 while performing forced labor at a sock factory adjacent to the internment facility, RFA has learned.
Shazadigul Tomur, 45, was taken from her home to Zhongtai internment camp in Toksun (in Chinese, Tuokesun) county, Turpan (Tulufan) prefecture, in mid-2018 and developed a stomach pain a year later, a source with knowledge of the situation and local officials said.
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Shazadigul’s story first came to RFA’s attention through an anonymous letter summarizing her detention and death. Local officials confirmed the details of her incarceration and death in telephone interviews.
The letter writer, who declined to be named out of fear of reprisal from Chinese authorities, told RFA that Shazadigul was taken to an internment camp in mid-2018 and that she had died in September 2020.
At the time of her death, Shazadigul was forced to work with a large group of internment camp detainees at a sock factory in Toksun’s Alghuy village, the letter said.
When the woman reported her health condition to camp officials, they ignored her pleas, saying it was not the first time that she had told them she was suffering.
Shazadigul’s abdominal pain had grown worse, and by September 2020, she was vomiting blood while still working at the factory, according to the letter. One day she lost consciousness at the factory and later died.