Images of Detainees -

Images of Detainees

The Xinjiang Police Files contain an encrypted archive with images of several thousand persons taken in the first half of 2018 at police stations and detention centers in Konasheher county, Kashgar prefecture – a region in southern Xinjiang that is predominantly inhabited by the Uyghur people. In 2018, these regions were ordered to photograph a substantial share of the population as part of biometric data collection. Each image filename contains a timestamp and the person’s government ID number. These images are free to use for non-commercial purposes but cannot be modified and must be attributed to the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and linked to the Xinjiang Police Files website, under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. For media use inquiries, please contact [email protected].

The Files also contain about 450 spreadsheets from the region that corroborate the identity of the depicted persons. They reveal that in 2018, at least 12.1 percent of all ethnic adults in the county were in detention – including 2,884 of the photographed persons. Among them are 15 minors. The youngest detained person depicted in these images is a 15-year old girl, and the oldest a 73-year old woman. The VOC research team led by Dr. Adrian Zenz analyzed and authenticated the material. [Read related research paper]

Some of these 2,884 persons were probably photographed prior to their detention, others likely during their internment.

Since these persons are victims, the full set of 2,884 images is made available on this website in original form (automatic contrast/color improvement was applied). Images have been watermarked to prevent manipulation. Image captions show basic available information about internment status. They also show the checksum of each original image file, which can be used to assess whether copies that may be circulating in other public spaces have been manipulated. Original filenames have been truncated for privacy reasons so as to not reveal each person’s full ID number.