The Albanian historian has talked about his experience of his Xinjiang visit in 2019 in an interview as he was quoted as saying by ANI: "Apart from mass brainwashing, indoctrinating, and jailing, Uyghurs are being subjected to mass colonisation in Xinjiang by the Han Chinese in order to change the demography of this Muslim majority province." 

"When I was in Xinjiang and I saw what the Chinese were doing to the Muslims, I told them that there is no difference between Taliban, Al Qaeda, and them because of what they do to non-Muslims. I told them you are exactly like them," he said.

"In its white paper, the Chinese government says very openly that Islam is a foreign religion and the original religion of Uyghurs was Buddhist [Buddhism]. And what the Chinese government is trying to do is convert them to Confucius and the Buddhist culture of China. And this thing is being done in state institutions, schools and museums," the historian said.

Reports say that Beijing has detained more than one million people from Xinjiang in recent years, citing security risks. Thousands of children have been separated from their parents and women have been forcibly subjected to methods of birth control.

China maintains that the people interned at these sites are given job training and education which is necessary to keep them away from terrorism and counter the secessionist forces in the region.