Internment camps in China's far west region of Xinjiang are being run like 'wartime concentration camps' and there is mounting evidence to suggest that Muslim inmates are being turned into forced labour
 Accounts from relatives of detainees, satellite images and previously unreported official documents have revealed that a growing number of detainees are being forced to work at various factories built inside or near the camps after 'graduating' from the facilities, according to a New York Times report
 Inmates told their relatives that they were forced to make clothes under tough working conditions at the factories and earned low wages
    Share this article   Share   Up to one million Uighurs and other Muslim minorities are believed to be held in extra-legal detention in Xinjiang, according to previous UN estimates, prompting an international outcry
  China has described the camps as 'professional vocational training institutions' used to counter terrorism while improving employment opportunities for citizens guilty of minor offences
  However, Uighur activists believe that up to three million people have been detained in the camps, according to non-governmental organisation Amnesty International
 There are approximately 12 million Muslim minorities in Xinjiang. Patrick Poon, China researcher at Amnesty, told MailOnline they haven't seen this many people detained in camps in recent Chinese history
 'The camps are similar to the wartime concentration camps, the scale is comparable and the repressive environment is similar,' he said
   'There are brainwashing political classes in the camps, where people are beaten up if they don't follow orders
 The overall atmosphere is very repressive,' he added, citing accounts from ex-detainees
 An AFP report in October revealed that thousands of guards at the camps were equipped with tear gas, Tasers, stun guns and spiked clubs, according to publicly available government documents
 The centres should 'teach like a school, be managed like the military, and be defended like a prison', said one document, quoting Xinjiang's party secretary Chen Quanguo
 To build new, better Chinese citizens, a document argued, the centres must first 'break their lineage, break their roots, break their connections, and break their origins'
 In previous reports, others have said they were forced to eat pork and drink alcohol, as well as denounce Islam and profess loyalty to the ruling Communist Party
    They also found themselves incarcerated for transgressions such as wearing long beards and face veils or sharing Islamic holiday greetings on social media, a process that echoes the decades of brutal thought reform under Mao Zedong
 After undergoing indoctrination at the camps, detainees are sent to the new factories built inside or near the internment camps in an emerging system of forced labour, according to the New York Times
 Satellite imagery suggests that production lines are being built inside some internment camps
 Another image of a camp featured in state television broadcast show 10 to 12 large buildings with a design commonly used for factories, according to the report
 Commercial registration records show several companies including a printing factory, a noodle factory and at least two clothing and textile manufacturers were established at addresses inside interment camps
  A Turkish researcher told The New York Times that the detainees 'provide free or low-cost forced labour for these factories,' based on the various inmate accounts he has collected through interviewing their relatives
 Inmates told their relatives that they were forced to make clothes under tough working conditions and earned low wages, according to Atajurt Kazakh Human Rights, an organisation in Kazakhstan that helps ethnic Kazakhs who have left neighboring Xinjiang
   One detainee was sent from a camp to work in a carpet factory and another was sent to work at a textile factory for US$95 (£75) a month
 They are not allowed to leave the factories and communication with relatives, if permitted, is heavily monitored, according to a Financial Times report
  However, since August, the Chinese government has defended the camps by arguing that they are vocational training centres that will provide detainees the skills needed for a job in Chinese society, including learning Mandarin
 Participation is voluntary, according to state-broadcaster CCTV in a report in October, releasing footage purportedly showing 'contented' Muslim trainees wearing matching uniforms, studying Mandarin and learning trades like knitting, weaving and baking
 'Xinjiang has established a training model with professional vocational training institutions as the platform, learning the country's common language, legal knowledge, vocational skills, along with de-extremisation education,' the chairman of Xinjiang's government, Shohrat Zakir, said in an ardent defence of the use of the centres
   'Through vocational training, most trainees have been able to reflect on their mistakes and see clearly the essence and harm of terrorism and religious extremism,' he said
China has said Xinjiang faces a serious threat from Islamist militants and separatists who plot attacks and stir up tension between the mostly Muslim Uighur minority and the ethnic Han Chinese majority
   The centres first appeared in 2014, the year that authorities launched a new 'strike hard' campaign against 'terrorism' after deadly violence in Xinjiang
 Zakir previously reiterated: 'Today's Xinjiang is not only beautiful but also safe and stable
 No matter where they are or at what time of the day, people are no longer afraid of going out, shopping, dining and travelling
' However, critics have warned that mass incarcerations and forced cultural assimilation of China's western Muslim minorities risk further inflaming and perpetuating separatist anger
   
