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Snapshots of Xinjiang's migrant workers

2009-07-30 17:05 BJT

Special Report: 7.5 Xinjiang Urumqi Riots |

URUMQI, July 30 (Xinhua) -- In a vocational school in the county seat of Jiashi, Xinjiang in China's far west, 60 Uygur women dressed in camouflage received military training on Wednesday, which is one of the school's courses to teach students' discipline.

The students will soon join in the army of migrant workers heading to China's coastal east.

Rebiya Aierken, one of the girls -- all near their 20s, -- said she has been recruited by a clothing factory in east China's Ningbo City.

"The school offers job information and training. I had a year of clothing factory experience in Beijing last year. I want to try a new place this year, and I chose the job in Ningbo. My sister said she would join me after finishing her study here," she said.

"No fee is charged for people who want to take courses here," said a school principal, "We have courses teaching sewing, knitting, electric welding, woodwork and building."

"The regional government spent 300 million to 400 million yuan a year to provide the free training courses to help the migrant workers from Xinjiang get accustomed to city jobs," said Nur Bekri, chairman of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region government, earlier this month.

The boom of Xinjiang's migrant workers going for city jobs has not been dampened by the factory riot in Shaoguan City, south China's Guangdong Province on June 26, in which two Uygur employees were killed and more than 100 were injured.

Police have said the riot was caused by a post on a local Web site saying "Six Xinjiang boys raped two innocent girls at the Xuri Toy Factory."

The rumormonger had been detained by police.

Rezimangu, a Uygur woman in her 20s, was among 1.87 million rural laborers that left the farmlands of Xinjiang for city jobs last year.

She felt herself different, after finishing the labor contract in Tianjin Municipality in eastern coast and returning to her home in Jiashi County in Kashi Prefecture of Xinjiang.