Allison Killing and Christo Buschek “Investigating the Uighur Detention Camp Network in Xinjiang Province, China” at the 2023 Venice International Architecture Biennale

Detention in Xinjiang Since 2016, it is estimated that more than a million Muslim minorities have been interned in camps and prisons in Xinjiang province in China, in a network of camps estimated at 1,200.

In these camps, it was mainly Uighurs who were locked up, but also Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Kyrgyz, Hui, Mongols and Xibe.

These internments are linked to a desire on the part of the Chinese State to monitor and suppress certain religious minorities.

An action considered genocide according to some countries and associations defending human rights.

China denies these facts and this interpretation by saying that these internment camps are for educating these groups to combat extremism.

Detention in Xinjiang Nevertheless, the persons thus arrested and kept in these detention camps were often detained for several years for their religious beliefs and their behaviour was considered unfair.

For example, people who downloaded WhatsApp, grew a beard or studied abroad have been arrested for their unfair behaviour.

The photographs are of former Kazakh detainees who were released after several years of “education” and who returned to Kazakhstan to avoid the risk of being arrested again.

These former detainees in the Chinese camps in Xinjiang are the rare witnesses to what is happening in these camps, because while the Kazakh prisoners have been released, the Uighurs are not and cannot testify.

Detention in Xinjiang