In one document, local officials are told to monitor inmates at all times - including during toilet breaks - to prevent escape
Buildings where Muslims are detained in Xinjiang. File pic/AFP
Beijing: Leaked government documents outlining the need to prevent escape, double lock doors and constantly monitor detainees in China's network of internment camps in Xinjiang refute Beijing's defence of "vocational education centres" in the region, experts say.
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Obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and published by 17 media outlets worldwide on Sunday, the documents show the strict protocols governing life in the camps in Xinjiang. In one document, local officials are told to monitor inmates at all times - including during toilet breaks - to prevent escape.
Referring to detainees as students who must "graduate" from the camps, the guidelines lay out how staff should manage their day-to-day lives, such as by ensuring "timely haircuts and shaves", while also emphasising that detainees are barred from having cellphones, according to the memo.
"Students... may not contact the outside world apart from during prescribed activities," the memo reads. The memo says inmates should be judged based on a points system that measures "ideological transformation, study and training, and compliance with discipline."
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