For a child, home is more than a building. It is the sound of a mother speaking her language, the stories told by grandparents, the traditions followed during religious festivals and the feeling of belonging to a community. For many Uyghur families, however these ordinary connections have reportedly been weakened by a state-run boarding-school system in the Uyghur homeland, which China officially calls Xinjiang. On International Youth Day, Uyghur activist Rahima Mahmut alleged that the separation of children from their families is contributing to the gradual erasure of Uyghur language, faith and identity.
The Allegations Behind the Numbers
Mahmut, the executive director of Stop Uyghur Genocide, has alleged that hundreds of thousands of Uyghur children have been separated from their parents and placed in state-run boarding schools, residential kindergartens and other institutions. ANI reported her claim that as many as 900,000 children may have been affected by 2019, although the figure remains an allegation and is difficult to independently verify because access to the region is severely restricted. The lack of transparent official data makes it even more important to distinguish documented evidence from estimates while continuing to investigate the claims.
What the United Nations Has Warned
Concern about family separation is not limited to Uyghur advocacy organisations. In 2023, United Nations human-rights experts expressed “grave concern” over reports that large numbers of Uyghur and other minority children were being removed from their families and placed in full-time boarding schools, preschools or orphanages. The experts said many institutions used Mandarin almost exclusively, with little or no teaching in the children’s mother tongue. They warned that such policies could lead to forced assimilation and undermine children’s rights to family life, education and cultural identity.
Language Is the Heart of Identity
Language is not simply a school subject. It carries family memories, poetry, humour, religious expression and historical knowledge. When children are educated mainly in Mandarin and have limited access to Uyghur, their ability to communicate with older relatives may gradually weaken. The concern is not that Uyghur children learn Mandarin but that bilingual education may be replaced by a system in which the dominant language displaces the native one. The United Nations experts specifically noted that Uyghur children reportedly face pressure to speak and learn only Mandarin, rather than receiving meaningful education in both languages.
Children Left Without Their Families
Human Rights Watch has reported that authorities placed children whose parents were detained or living in exile in state-run welfare institutions and boarding schools without genuine parental consent or regular family access. Amnesty International has also documented the experiences of parents separated from their children, describing years of uncertainty and failed attempts at reunification. For these families, separation is not an abstract policy debate. It means birthdays missed, unanswered messages and children growing up without the emotional security of their parents.
Beijing’s Security Explanation
Chinese authorities have defended their policies as measures intended to provide education, reduce poverty and prevent extremism. Boarding schools exist in many countries and education itself should not automatically be treated as repression. The central issue is whether families freely consent, whether children can maintain contact with relatives and whether they can study their own language, history and religion without coercion. If children are separated because their parents have been detained, exiled or labelled politically suspicious, then the system becomes connected to punishment rather than ordinary education.
A Policy That Reaches the Future
The impact of forced separation can last for generations. A government may control schools today but the consequences appear years later when young people lose access to their language, religious traditions and family histories. This is why Uyghur activists describe the policy as an attempt to reshape identity rather than merely reform education. Reports from NPR have included accounts from former Uyghur boarding-school students who said they lost their mother tongue and experienced harsh treatment.
The Right to Grow Up Uyghur
Every child has the right to education but education should expand a child’s world rather than sever their connection with family and culture. The international community should demand independent access to Xinjiang, transparent information about boarding schools, family reunification and education in Uyghur alongside Mandarin. The Chinese government should also allow detained parents and children to communicate freely and investigate allegations of abuse. Protecting Uyghur children is not an attack on education or Chinese society. It is a demand that no government should have the power to decide that a child must lose their language, faith and family in order to belong.