Radio Sweden: Uighurs in Sweden receive threats from China

People from the Muslim minority group Uighurs tell they have been pressed to gather information about other Uighurs living in Sweden and about Uighur organisations.

A part of the Xinjiang region, where the Uighurs live in China

The information comes from Radio Sweden, who has heard recorded phone calls and seen text conversations and e-mails which appear to back up allegations that people who claim to represent the Chinese security service have tried to recruit Uighurs in Sweden as informers.

According to Radio Sweden, they often resort to threats and extortion.

Head of the Swedish Security Service’s counter-espionage division, Daniel Stenling, says that he cannot comment on individual cases, but the Swedish Security Service takes these allegations seriously.

China’s ambassador to Sweden denies the allegations.

The Uighurs are a Turkic ethnic group who primarily practice Islam and live in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China.

China has detained as many as 1 million Uighurs in so-called “reeducation centers”, where they undergo psychological indoctrination programs like studying communist propaganda and giving thanks to Chinese President Xi Jinping.

China was criticized for these centers at a United Nations Human Rights Council in the beginning of November.

The Chinese government says the camps are vocational and training centers intended to combat extremism.

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