Ben takes a stand against Uyghur forced labour at event in Sheffield

1st October, 2020

"It's time to end the silence on atrocities committed by China like the genocide of the Uyghur people" Cllr Ben Miskell

Ben today joined forces with the Uyghur Solidarity Campaign by demanding an end to the forced labour of the Uyghur people and the complicity of many sports brands in their supply chains. In a protest on the Moor in Sheffield, Ben stood with campaigners who were holding banners and handing out leaflets to show solidarity with the Uyghur people.

In a message on social media Cllr Ben Miskell said: “We can’t be silent at atrocities committed in China, especially when slave labour sportswear from the Uyghur people fills the shelves on UK high streets here in Sheffield”.

The Chinese state is inflicting industrial-scale racist oppression on the Uyghur people along with other ethnic and national minority groups in north-west China. The Uyghurs are majority-Muslim and are the largest national group in the province officially called “Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region” but known to the Uyghurs as East Turkestan.

The repression includes arbitrary mass internment and indoctrination of at least a million people in concentration camps; an extreme, intrusive, suffocating regime of mass surveillance; draconian restrictions on cultural, linguistic and religious freedom, including the virtual banning of Muslim religious practice; and the systematic separation of Uyghur children from their families. This has been documented by many human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

The protest was joined by other groups facing oppression at the hands of the Chinese state, including members of South Yorkshire’s Hong Kong community, who face increased brutality and crackdowns on democracy from Beijing.