The ongoing COVID-19 crisis has further highlighted the desperate situation in which minority Muslim groups – predominantly Uyghurs – have been under intense pressure from China’s Communist Party (CCP) since the spring of 2017, with laws being introduced banning children from speaking their native language in school, men growing long beards and women wearing veils.

Hundreds of religious sites, namely mosques and Muslim graveyards, have also been razed to the ground since Beijing’s representatives in Xinjiang introduced so-called anti-extremism bills with CNN having examined satellite images of these sites before and after they were destroyed. Further unsettling accounts have emerged from concentration camps, which have been likened to those of Adolf Hitler’s murderous regime, where at least 1 million Uyghur, Kazaks and Uzbeks have been held in high-security facilities where detainees are denied the right to contact their families and freely practice their religion.

Many are understood to have been detained without having their case heard in court or sentenced following alleged show trials to spend years inside what China calls “re-education centres”.

Inside the hundreds of camps in Xinjiang, detainees have reported having to renounce Islam, show unwavering devotion to communism, while being monitored around the clock under prison-like conditions.

Further harrowing allegations, compiled by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) think tank, include acts of sexual violence against women with some “forced to undergo abortions” or “have contraception implanted against their will”.

The CFR think tank said in November that detainees had been targeted for a number of reasons, including travelling to or having contact with people in twenty-six countries – among them Turkey and Afghanistan.

Beijing denies allegations of torture and forced detention, with Xinjiang’s Governor Shohrat Zakir last year calling the sites “the same as boarding schools” and claimed “students” personal freedoms were guaranteed.

The ongoing situation in Xinjiang has led numerous members of the estimated 1.8 million Uyghurs who live abroad to call for the immediate release of family members being detained in the camps or who are among the 80,000 forced labourers that the Australian Strategic Policy Institute believes to be held against their will in factories across China.

Now Uyghurs have said that in addition to the alleged ongoing crimes against their people, that the coronavirus pandemic has again ignited fear for their family members.

In a series of statements, several Uyghurs have told of their families’ plight and their concerns amid the COVID-19 crisis.

Jevlan Shirmemet, son of Suriye Tursun

The last time Jevlan Shirmemet spoke to his family was on January 11, 2018.

Now living in Istanbul, Mr Shirmemet is continuing to demand answers from the CCP over the whereabouts of his 56-year-old mother, Suriye Tursun, after she was detained and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment.

He described Suriye as “a grateful woman” with a love of cooking for her children and travelling.

In fact, it is a visit to see Mr Shirmemet in Turkey that he believes the Chinese government targeted and detained her.

He added: “Because we are Uyghur, I studied in Turkey and my mum came to visit me at my university.

“Because I study in Turkey, all my family members were detained in concentration camps. Because my mother came to visit me at my university, she was sentenced to jail. I cannot think of any other reasons (for the detention).”

The last time Mr Shirmemet, 29, saw his mother was when she waved him off at Urumqi Airport on October 13, 2016 – the last time he left Xinjiang for Turkey.

In the following years Mr Shirmemet’s family were rounded up ad detained in concentration camps as part of what he describes as the CCP’s “Nazi policy”.

His dad Xudayar, an environmental protection office official based in Korgas (Huocheng) county, and his younger brother Erfan – a graduate of the then Northwest University for Nationalities – had “graduated” from one of the detention centres.

But Suriye remains imprisoned.

He described the last time he spoke to his family on January 11, 2018, as “normal, like usual”. But, just two days later, Mr Shirmemet started to notice that his family had started to delete him from WeChat.

After that, Mr Shirmemet said he did not dare contact his family out of fear it could “bring them more trouble”.

It wasn’t until December 2019 that Mr Shirmemet learned that his family had been detained in concentration camps.

He continued: “It was told to me that all my family members were detained in concentration camps in early 2018. My mum was sentenced to five years in jail and my father, Xudayar, and younger brother, Erfan, ‘had graduated’ from a Chinese inhumane ‘Nazi camp’ in December 2019.”

But the situation inside the camps has become even more concerning with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

China has insisted that cases have remained under control since March, with the Government’s official statistics claiming that some 4,600 people have died and nearly 83,000 cases have been recorded.

But the figures have been disputed with US President Donald Trump tweeting last month: “It is far higher than that and far higher than the US, not even close.”

With no cure yet available for the disease, Mr Shirmemet said he fears for the health of people inside the camps and what actions the CCP might take once it is brought under control.

He said: “I’m very concerned, as the conditions of prisons in ‘Xinjiang’ are very poor. My mum’s health was not good and we know that China lied to the world about the coronavirus, just as they are lying about the concentration camps. So, yes, I am very worried.

“I fear the Chinese government will become more aggressive against the Uyghur people after the coronavirus is under control. They still do that (maintain aggression against Uyghurs), they never stopped doing it.”

Mr Shirmemet is continuing to fight for his mother’s release and has been in contact with the European Human Rights Committee, Turkey’s National Council, the International Uyghur Human Rights Project and Amnesty International.

Express.co.uk,May 15, 2020