Turkey calls on China to close internment camps for Muslims

ISTANBUL: Turkey called on China to close its internment camps for Muslims, saying the camps which reportedly hold a million ethnic Uighur people are a “great shame for humanity”.

Last week, rights activists urged European and Muslim nations to take the lead in establishing a U.N. investigation into China’s detention and “forced indoctrination” of up to one million Uighurs, who speak a Turkic-language, and other Muslims in Xinjiang province. “The policy of systematic assimilation against the Uighur Turks carried out by the authorities of China is a great shame for humanity,” Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said in a statement late on Saturday.

“It is no longer a secret that more than one million Uighur Turks incurring arbitrary arrests are subjected to torture and political brainwashing in internment camps and prisons,” Aksoy said.