Exiled Uighurs fear spread of coronavirus in China camps

Members of China's Uighur minority living in exile are sounding the alarm over the risk of the coronavirus spreading in camps inside the country, where NGOs say hundreds of thousands of people have been rounded up by Beijing.

So far, official figures released by Chinese state media give no major cause for concern over the COVID-19 outbreak in the northeastern region of Xinjiang that is home to the Uighurs, a Muslim minority who speak a Turkic language.

It is far from the epicentre of the outbreak and just 55 cases have been reported in the region so far. The first patients to fully recover in the region have already left hospital, according to official media.

Over 1,100 people have died in China due to the coronavirus epidemic although most of the deaths and infections have been in the central Hubei province, whose capital, Wuhan, is the epicentre of the outbreak.

But representatives of the Uighur diaspora warn there is real reason to fear a rapid spread of coronavirus in the controversial Chinese camps.

The virus spreads from person to person through droplets disseminated by sneezing or coughing, and confining large groups of people together, possibly without adequate access to germ-killing soap and water, will increase the likelihood of an outbreak.

China has rounded up an estimated one million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim ethnic minorities in internment camps, NGOs and experts say, and little is known about the conditions inside them.

Beijing insists the camps re "vocational training centres" necessary to combat terrorism.

"People are starting to panic. Our families are there, dealing with the camps and the virus, and we do not know if they have enough to eat or if they have masks," said Dilnur Reyhan, a French sociologist of Uighur origin.

A petition posted on Change.org signed by over 3,000 people urges the closure of the camps to reduce the threat.