The Indigenous doctor uniting western and traditional medicine in Brazil In 2012, Adana Omágua Kambeba travelled 4,000km (2,500 miles) from her home in Manaus, in the Brazilian Amazon, to take up a coveted place to study medicine at the Federal University of Minas Gerais in south-east Brazil. She became the first among her people, the Kambeba, or Omágua, to graduate in the field, still largely dominated by white elites. According to the 2022 census, Indigenous people represented 0.1% of those who graduated in medicine in Brazil. Even before receiving her…
Tag: Uyghurs
US drops plan to deport Chinese man who helped expose abuse of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, say activists
Decision comes amid growing public support for Guan Heng – who secretly filmed detention facilities in China – after he illegally entered US by boat The Department of Homeland Security has dropped its plan to deport a Chinese national who entered the country illegally, two rights activists have said, after his plight raised public concerns that if deported the man would be punished by Beijing for helping expose human rights abuses in China’s Xinjiang region. Rayhan Asat, a human rights lawyer who assisted in the case, said Guan Heng’s lawyer…
Man who documented Uyghur camps in China may face removal from US after ICE arrest
A Chinese man who left his country after filming at sites of alleged human rights violations against Uyghurs now faces the risk of removal from the United States, according to his lawyer and mother. Guan Heng, 38, underwent an immigration hearing in New York on Monday after being detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in August, his mother said in an interview. The case could see him taken out of the United States and potentially landing back in China eventually. “I’m really, really worried that things will be…
Preparation for the Next Life review – deeply felt story of love among the marginalised in New York
Chinese-American film-maker Bing Liu made an impression with the poignant documentary Minding the Gap about people from his home town in Illinois; now he pivots to features with this sad and sombre study of romance and life choices among those on the margins of US society, adapted from the prize-winning novel of the same name by Atticus Lish. The scene is the no-questions-asked world of New York’s Chinatown; newcomer Sebiye Behtiyar plays Aishe, a Chinese Uyghur Muslim undocumented immigrant. One day she catches the eye of Skinner, played by Fred…
How three Uyghur brothers fled China – to spend 12 years in an Indian prison
On the evening of 12 June 2013, according to court documents, three “Chinese intruders” were arrested by the Indian army in Sultan Chusku, a remote and uninhabited desert area in the mountainous northern region of Ladakh. The three Thursun brothers – Adil, 23, Abdul Khaliq, 22 and Salamu, 20 – had found themselves in an area of unmarked and disputed borders after a 13-day journey by bus and foot over the rugged Himalayan terrain through China’s Xinjiang province, which borders Ladakh. The men told army officials that they had fled…
‘They told me not to speak out’: the woman who took on China – and won her husband’s freedom
Zeynure Hasan was at home in Istanbul in July 2021 when her husband finally called. It had been four days since she last heard from him as he got ready to board a flight to Casablanca. The silence had been torturous. But the news Idris now shared with her was even worse. He had been arrested and imprisoned on arrival in Morocco and told he was going to be deported to China. “You should call anyone who can help me, anyone who can rescue me,” he told her, before the…
Watchdog cleared ex-Tory minister to work for offshoot of firm linked to China surveillance
A government watchdog advised a former minister that he could work with a subsidiary of a company linked to Chinese surveillance technology, the Guardian can reveal. Richard Fuller, who served as economic secretary to the Treasury in the governments of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, wrote to the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba) before joining Investcorp Securities as an advisory board member in 2023. Fuller, 63, is now shadow chief secretary to the Treasury and is due to speak at several events at the Conservative party’s annual conference, which…
Revealed: Major NBA brands linked to forced labor in China
When Enes Kanter Freedom appeared on a basketball court in his Boston Celtics jersey and a pair of trainers emblazoned with the slogan “Free Uyghur”, the reaction from Beijing was swift. “Literally at the half-time, they cancelled every Celtics game on television [in China] for the rest of the year,” the basketball player tells the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) and the Guardian. That game, in October 2021, marked a turning point in his career. “That’s when the NBA got really angry at me,” says Freedom. Freedom, who has long…
Kmart faces legal action in Australia over potential forced labour links – podcast
Earlier this month an Australian-based Uyghur group launched legal action against Kmart in the federal court. The case has put the retailer’s supply chain under scrutiny for potential links to forced labour in China’s Xinjiang province. Nour Haydar speaks with senior reporter Ben Doherty about the legal action against Kmart and the warnings that Australia could become a dumping ground for products linked to forced labour The Guardian
Kmart supply chains under scrutiny for potential Uyghur forced labour links in Australian court case
The letter was effusively polite, the allegations anything but. “We have the honour to address you,” the seven United Nations special rapporteurs began their correspondence to the head of Jiangsu Guotai Guosheng garment factory in China’s Xinjiang province. The 2021 letter then detailed allegations of brutal working conditions for members of China’s Uyghur minority, reportedly forcibly transported hundreds of kilometres and arbitrarily detained for re-education and forced labour. “Workers are reportedly required to work in fenced-in factories … allegedly exposed to intimidation, coercion, threats, and restriction on their freedom of…