Published: September 23, 2005
Xinjiang Children Forced To Work in Cotton Fields
Schoolchildren in China's northwestern Xinjiang region are routinely pressed by army-backed production brigades into backbreaking, unpaid labor to help with the yearly cotton harvest, residents and officials say.
Official media in the Muslim-majority region describe the practice as a work-study program, but sources who spoke to Radio Free Asia (RFA) on condition of anonymity say students must meet specified targets or face fines.
Muslim Uyghurs, minority Kazakhs, and Han Chinese children alike are forced into "work-study" programs on behalf of the army's Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, known in Chinese as the bingtuan, a teacher at the Shihenzi Higher Middle School in Shihenzi City told RFA's Uyghur service.
He and others say many children, some as young as first grade, suffer from injuries and pesticide exposure.
Go to Radio Free Asia for more.
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