Children of imprisoned Uyghurs in China’s Xinjiang region are dropping out of school and taking manual labor jobs, a police officer told Radio Free Asia last week.
Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region is a vast, resource-rich region in far-western China. Many Uyghurs call it East Turkistan.
The officer, based in the regional capital Urumqi, said nearly 100 children of detained parents have left school and entered manual labor jobs in neighborhood committees under his supervision.
“Yes, we monitor their children,” the officer said. “Some of them have dropped out of school, and some of them are learning different skills.”
He said many of the children are under 18. Most of those who left school are doing manual labor.
The officer said the cases come from three neighborhood committees he oversees in Urumqi. He declined to name the committees. It is not known how widespread the situation may be elsewhere.
He said he had warned the children to “mind your own work, do not think too much and don’t do anything wrong so your future will be fine.”
He said the parents of three of the affected children died while serving prison sentences. He did not say when the deaths happened, where the parents were held, or the causes of death.
The officer did not give the number of parents currently imprisoned in the three committees. He said some parents received sentences of 15 years or more, while others were sentenced to less than 15 years, including terms of eight to nine years.
It is not clear how many of the children who left school were girls, what specific jobs they are doing, or how many children of detainees may be affected beyond the areas he described.
RFA said similar concerns were raised by Uyghurs living abroad. Kasimjan Abliz, a Uyghur man in Germany, said his jailed brother’s son left school at 14, while in the seventh grade, and began working at construction sites.
Another Uyghur man in Turkey, Osmanjan Tursun, said at least three children of his jailed relatives dropped out before finishing middle school and took on the burden of supporting their families.
China denies allegations of forced labor, arbitrary detention and other abuses in yUyghur region and says its policies are aimed at counterterrorism and poverty reduction.
It remains unclear how widespread school dropouts are among children of detainees across the region. U.N. experts have warned that forced labor is taking place in Xinjiang. The new accounts suggest that underage labor among children of detainees may also be surfacing as a broader concern.
China launched a mass detention campaign in Xinjiang in 2017. Human Rights Watch said in a Sept. 5, 2025, commentary that up to 1 million Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims were arbitrarily detained, and that an estimated 500,000 people who received long prison sentences remain in custody.
A 2022 U.N. human rights office report found that abuses in Xinjiang may constitute crimes against humanity. In 2021, United States government has labeled China’s treatment of Uyghurs as genocide and crimes against humanity.
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