Zrush 11,135 in an Excel spreadsheet: Erkin Ayup, Konasheher County, Building 1, Cell 122, prisoner, 07/26/2017, assigned to reform. That’s all Abduweli Ayup knows about his brother’s fate. His name is one of thousands appearing in the Xinjiang Police Files. The documents and photos document China’s dealings with Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang region.
The data was leaked to anthropologist Adrian Zenz. A group of international media published parts of it. The files also include images from the camps in which human rights organizations estimate the Chinese government is holding more than a million people at times. In more than 2000 portrait shots, people in front of a white background look directly into the camera: a man with cropped hair and bruises on his forehead, a 72-year-old woman with tired eyes, the youngest is only 15 years old.