dogu-turkistan-sempozyumu

East Turkistan - Restriction on Economic Life - Poverty and Its Societal Impact / Abdulsalam Abdulgani Alimwere stranded in a coastal Chinese province after the “training” programs offeredby local officials were effectively transformed into slave labour. Many officialsconfessed their involvement in forcing girls and pressurising the parents to sendtheir daughters to remote and unidentified locations in China. Parents werereluctant, but agreed to send their daughters due to the extreme poverty theyfound themselves in. On the one hand, these girls and their parents were deceivedwith attractive wages, such as 300 USD per month, paid travel and hotel-likeaccommodations. On the other hand, the parents were threatened with hashar(unpaid compulsory labour), confiscation of their land and the cutting off ofutilities, such as water for irrigation, if they did not give their daughters into thisprogramme.The actual conditions of the girls in their work places were described by theUyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) as follows: “Upon arrival to easterncoastal cities such as Zhejiang, Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Shandong, thewomen are met with a far different reality than that described to them and theirparents. Firstly, although they were primarily deceived with hopes of receivingattractive wages; the girls often don’t see any of this money. The travel costspromised to them are deducted from their pay, in addition to further deductions.Some women report that they were promised a wage reflecting their hourly work;however upon arrival they came to find out that they were in fact to receive payonly after completion of their job, which they claim is impossible to finish ontime. Many also complained of garnished wages due to fees unknown to them,along with services or costs promised to them during recruiting, eventually leavingmany of them with no payment whatsoever.Women complained of harsh, prison-like work conditions with severelimitations to their freedom, in addition to being forced to work inhumane hours.The food and living conditions have also reportedly turned out to be extremelypoor. Some women mentioned that their living quarters had a total lack of privacy,with others reporting that the food was very simple and poor quality -usuallybeing either plain rice or cabbage- and at times with insects to be found therein.In addition to this, independent reports have also suggested that many of thesegirls were pressured into marriage with local Chinese men, with many facinga punishment that they were unwilling to disclose for their refusing this offer.429