Daily Times

It’s hard to analogy “Detention centers” and “Concentration camps” are reported of coming into existence to prison the revolutionary crowd. These camps yet have surfaced with different names but serve the same purpose, have historical ties with the internment camps in Vichy France that detained refugees from occupied Europe in the 1940s. The French camp housed paperless refugees from Nazi Europe and horrendous revelations about the mistreatment with the refugees were recorded based on visits to the camps and interviews done by some brave American journalists.

Not sure of the intensity of criminality may have reached epic in the present concentration camps, but French camps have tails of inhumane stories to their name. Poor refugees were sheltered in unheated barracks and the content of the opened latrines blew away in rough weather. The poor sanitation and cleanliness had made Dysentery and Typhus rampant. The crowd was fed with a salted water- taste-alike soup and served with a weak coffee and stale brown bread. In summers, vermin and bugs were found and thousands of detainees were deported to Germany for extermination.

Reports have surfaced about a new detention camp in India, which has a spread of seven football fields with barracks for prisoners and security forces deployed to guard it. The facility will soon be in operation to welcome new inmates, who are not aliens but are going to be Indian- Muslims; once pronounced their citizens in the state of Assam are now made stateless with the implementation of NRC. Sadly, the Citizenship amendment Act has rendered nearly two million Muslims to fall in this category. Plans are to open new ten detention facilities across the different states to lodge entire families, who have their children born and raised in India, though Nazism would not have considered them as Indian Citizens. The former chief minister of Maharashtra informed that Devendra Fadnavis, the union ministry has sent a proposal to build another camp in Maharashtra. These successive measures to open new facilities depict their intent to implement NRC beyond Assam, to house the non-citizens who have failed to find documents to trace and prove their ancestors were “authentic” Indians.

With the legislation of the Citizenship amendment act, Modi’s government has been trying to exclude the Indian Muslim population from the national citizenship list. The administration is silent about the future of these people and have only left with one option- detention centers to be their abode for the rest of their lives. The dark and uncertain future ahead of Indian Muslims is now the voice of those representing “Secular India.” People not limited to Hindus, but also the foreigner have flooded the streets to protest the draconian law to promote Hindutva and transform India into pre-war Germany.

At present, these camps are not only found in India but its neighboring country- China has housed thousands of Uighur Muslim detainees for a long time in there called “political education camps.” The inhumanities and sufferings that have surpassed our imagination done regularly are the highlights of the newspapers.

Besides, there are reports of deaths within the political education camps and disturbing facts about physical and psychological abuse, as well as stress from poor conditions, overcrowding, and indefinite confinement. Former detainees reported suicide attempts and harsh punishments for disobedience in the facilities. Nonetheless, the government is busy detaining people and subjects them to greater levels of controls not only based on their behavior or beliefs, but also those of their family members – a form of collective punishment contrary to international human rights law. Perhaps the foremost innovative – and distressing – of the repressive course in Xinjiang is the government’s use of advanced mass espionage systems. The authorities have envisaged these systems as a series of “filters,” picking out people with certain behavior or characteristics that they believe indicate a threat to the Communist Party’s rule in Xinjiang. However, the Authorities have sought to justify harsh treatment in the name of maintaining stability and security in Xinjiang.

The international community has maintained a silence over the inhumane tactics, now are common practice by the countries to clamp down dissenting voices

In many ways, the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang – those held inside detention facilities and those ostensibly free – bears disturbing similarities. Inside political education camps, detainees are forced to learn Mandarin Chinese, sing praises of the Chinese Communist Party, and memorize rules applicable primarily to Turkic Muslims. Those outside the camps area unit are required to attend weekly, or even daily, Chinese flag-raising ceremonies, political indoctrination meetings, and at times Mandarin classes. Detainees are told they may not be allowed to leave the camps unless they have learned over 1,000 Chinese characters or are otherwise deemed to have become loyal Chinese subjects. Inside, people are unit are censured for peacefully practicing religion; outside, the government’s religious restrictions are so stringent that it has effectively outlawed Islam. Inside, people are closely watched by guards and are barred from contacting their families and friends. Those living in their homes are watched by their neighbors, officials, and tech-enabled mass surveillance systems, and are not allowed to contact those in foreign countries.

The list of countries is not exhaustive, but the US has its detention camps on the country’s southern border for thousands of Mexican immigrants, who are made to sit on nearly freezing concrete floor, with a mere thin blanket wrapped around to dodge cold. The immigrants include young ones, some not even a year old are forcibly separated from their parents before being brought to the camps. These unknown infants are made to look after by the older children, and some are given for adoptions though they have parents who want them back.

The international community has maintained a silence over the inhumane tactics, now are common practice by the countries to clamp down dissenting voices. The champions of human rights groups: United Nations and human rights commission must take stern action against the mass discriminations and violations of treaties and protocol ratified by the countries. The local human rights groups and NGOs should continue their practice, urging the government to shut down and repeal these laws to promote harmony and equality.

The writer is a journalist at Fox News Digital