Main content

Forced to teach in a ā€˜re-educationā€™ camp

Sayragul Sauytbay says that she was made to work as a teacher in a detention camp holding Chinese Muslims. Eventually she escaped to Kazakhstan, but had to fight deportation.

Sayragul Sauytbay is an ethnic Kazakh from Xinjiang in western China. In 2016, she was happily married with two children and loved her job as a head teacher at a kindergarten. But a year after ā€“ amidst a crackdown on Xinjiangā€™s predominantly Muslim population ā€“ she says she was summoned to teach in a different facility, one of many camps set up to ā€œre-educateā€ Chinese Muslims like her. The Chinese government claims these camps offer voluntary education and training. But the UN has called them 'internment camps'; Sayragul calls them 'concentration camps'. She says she was held there, and was forced to teach Chinese propaganda under strict surveillance. Eventually she escaped the country to be with her family in Kazakhstan. But her ordeal wasnā€™t over; she faced trial and deportation back to China where she feared severe punishment for spilling state secrets. Sayragul tells Jo Fidgen her story.

Florence Evans has an unusual and historic hobby ā€“ mudlarking. She spends hours walking along the Thames foreshore looking for items brought up by the tide. Outlook reporter Holly Young braved the rainy English weather to accompany Florence on one of her trips, to find out more about her shoreline discoveries.

Picture: Prisoners in blue boiler suits inside Xinjiang camp - photo posted to the WeChat account of the Xinjiang Judicial Administration, April 2017.

Available now

53 minutes

Last on

Wed 15 Jan 2020 04:06GMT

Broadcasts

  • Tue 14 Jan 2020 12:06GMT
  • Tue 14 Jan 2020 16:06GMT
  • Tue 14 Jan 2020 18:06GMT
  • Tue 14 Jan 2020 21:06GMT
  • Tue 14 Jan 2020 23:06GMT
  • Wed 15 Jan 2020 03:06GMT
  • Wed 15 Jan 2020 04:06GMT

Contact Outlook

Contact Outlook

Info on how we might use your contribution on air

Podcast: Lives Less Ordinary

Podcast: Lives Less Ordinary

Step into someone elseā€™s life and expect the unexpected