♪ tonight, one family's journey to safety. from persecution in china to a new home in the united states. >> my english is great, and i love school, i love books. >> our many investigations in the region. >> you can see there's police officers everywhere. in fact, put your camera down -- police right there. >> millions living in fear, allegations of genocide and slave labor. >> there are actually factories that are effectively attached to the political educational camps. >> the skirts, shirts, and slacks making it to the usa. >> more and more are coming? >> more and more are coming. >> this special edition of "nightline," "journey to safety," will be right back.

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"nightline," "journey to safety," continues. here now, bob woodruff. ♪ da da da da da da da da da da da da ♪ >> push me, now push! push me, now push! push, push, push! whee! >> reporter: this is what pure joy looks like.

>> so good, so good, so beautiful! >> reporter: the kind only found in the innocence of a child. >> whee! >> reporter: every family's american dream looks a little different. >> whee! >> reporter: this one may appear picture perfect. but first glances can be deceiving. beneath the surface, an ugly story emerges. one that's had 7-year-old byon, her mom and her dad on the run for years. byon's mom spent nearly two years imprisoned in china in one of those now-infamous re-education camps. she is a member of china's muslim minority, a group that some experts say china is focused on wiping out. when you landed in the united states, what did it feel like?

>> good to see you! >> byon, do you remember when you met us over in kazakhstan? do you remember? your mom was crying, right? what did you say to her? >> you look happier than last time, compared to the last time i saw you. are you happier now? for two years you didn't see your mom? >> i missed you. >> did you tell byon exactly

what you were being forced to do in china? >> reporter: there are very few images of the camps, from satellite photos, photos from the government, and cell phone photos leaked by activists. from an investigation into the so-called prisons, artists created these harrowing scenes based on the testimonies of more than 50 former detainees. the united nations and rights groups say more than 1 million people have been detained in camps like these. some forced into slave labor factories, making products linked to the biggest brands in the world. thousands of shipments coming into the u.s. every year. >> it's not enough to just use the term genocide. and it's not enough to impose

sanctions. senior leadership of the chinese government or the regional leadership in xinjiang don't expect to individually have to pay a price for what they have done. >> reporter: to understand the roots of thi y have to untangle the 2,000-year history of the region and a complex web of international relations. xinjiang is home to the old silk road. rich in resources and crossroads for trade, an important key to chinese economy. it's also where turkic muslims make up the majority of the population. % are kazakh. 46% are known as uighurs. >> that region, xinjiang region, it's the most encapsulated area in the world in terms of information. every single cell tower is monitored. uighurs need to install an app

on their phone so china can track, access what they're saying what pictures and videos they're taking. >> authorities show up and say, you're praying too much. why are you putting gas in someone's car? why are you going out the backdoor instead of the front don't ca door of your house? if they don't like your answers, you can be detained for that. >> reporter: i've been coming here to report on these camps since 2015, a witness to the ever-present police state. driving around this town, you can see there's police officers everywhere. put your camera down, police right there. >> reporter: the chinese government says the crackdown is in response to rising violence over the past 20 years. beijing blaming radicalized groups of uighurs for the attacks. >> the overwhelming majority of people who have been detained are not in any way alleged to have born a discernible law. >> reporter: china's treatment of its muslim citizens is described by the u.s. with one word -- genocide. >> my judgment remains that

genocide was committed against the uighurs. >> reporter: china denies any mistreatment of its muslim populations, claiming what we often see as part of anti-terrorism and deradicalization efforts in xinjiang in accordance with the law to protect people's lives. >> translator: the claim that there is genocide in xinjiang could not be more absurd, it is just a rumor, a complete lie." >> reporter: she says the chinese government is lying. she calls the camps prisons. she says everyone was drilled in never-ending propaganda and forced to learn mandarin. but the accusations go much deeper. >> we have heard that there is some forced sterilization in these camps?

>> reporter: we went to xinjiang in 2019. granted a rare tour inside a vocational center, where our tour guides showed us only what they wanted us to see. >> can you take us to some other places? >> reporter: not what we asked for. >> is it possible you could give us -- >> next time, next time. >> reporter: when we tried to go find other camps and prisons on our own -- >> government officials followed us around, we can't go anywhere. >> reporter: we were followed. guided to local tourist attractions. and in some cases, stopped by authorities. >> we're not going to china, we're going to kazakhstan, just kazakhstan. >> reporter: she served nearly two years in the camps, where torture was common.

>> pulled back your hair? >> reporter: she says one punishment had her strapped to a chair, unable to move, her hair tied to bricks, pulling her neck backward. when she was finally released, she followed a common path out of china. the first stop, kazakhstan. two years ago, i met a number of other camp survivors there who all told similar stories of torture. here she was able to reunite with her husband and daughter, all thanks to human rights lawyer serik john belash. >> we've not been able to see these camps, we have no access, it's hard to prove any of this. >> we collected 30,000 video testimonies so we have enough facts. so i call it genocide. >> are these police? >> yeah. >> reporter: but his work made him and his human rights group a target. >> police, police. >> reporter: we were there as police raided his office

building. >> now we're kind of walking down the stairs quickly to get out. we really have no idea what they're looking for. >> reporter: belash was held for months, then put on house arrest, banned from any work that would criticize chinese policies, especially about those prisons. but they continue to attract attention. >> i was also threatened. we decided it is too dangerous to keep living in kazakhstan any more. >> reporter: searching for a safe haven, they turned west to turkey. this majority muslim country is home to an estimated 50,000 uighurs. many from xinjiang. >> asia over there, europe over there. >> reporter: but many say turkey is not as safe as it used to be. >> i asked the government not to deport back our people. >> reporter: as china's influence grows, and after

turkey agreed to an extradition treaty with the global superpower last year, protests against deportations became common. >> are uighurs being sent back into china? >> yes. >> against their will? >> yes. the chinese government has really put pressure on governments in central asia and southeast asia, in the middle east, even in parts of europe, to send people back. >> reporter: during a call in july, for the first time, president erdogan addressed the uighur situation with chinese president xi jinping, saying it is important to turkey that uighur muslims live in peace as equal citizens of china. >> i think turkey is walking a pretty fine line. its economy clearly is not in great shape. and china has a lot to offer. >> reporter: but here, like in so many conflicts, the uncertainty weighs the heaviest on the children. at this boarding school, many of these kids, some as young as

little bayan, are stuck in limbo. their parents, sometimes whole families, are now missing in xinjiang. >> this is about families, mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters. it is just heartbreaking. i think the world needs to know what's happening to those people. >> reporter: during the year they spent in turkey, they could not shake the feeling they were being watched. then belash began learning about mysterious attacks on his colleagues. >> you were losing some of your friends? >> yeah. we are living in danger in turkey, just like a spy movie. we are so very afraid. >> reporter: up next, forced to

make tough decisions, leaving some family behind. >> children. >> reporter: plus your skirts, shirts, and shorts. could they have come from slave labor in china? stay with us. (cat 1) friskies world! (cat 2) look at that! (cat 1) it's made with real farm-raised chicken! (cat 2) i gotta get my paws on that! (cat 1) it's friskies farm favorites! (cat 2) the winning farm-ula. (woman vo) feed their fantasy. ♪ friskies ♪ (cat 1) look! friskies ocean favorites! yum! don't settle. start your day with secret. secret stops odor- causing sweat 3x more.

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china is no longer a sleeping giant. now a 21st century economic powerhouse, manufacturing millions of products worth billions of dollars, many passing through ports tt "made china" on them. clothes, food, toys, and tech. the brands we buy on a daily basis, often produced by cheap labor under harsh conditions. >> this is a shame on those companies! >> reporter: nowhere is that more evident than in xinjiang. human rights activists allege that slave labor is happening near facilities like these located throughout xinjiang, where uighurs and other ethnic muslims have been detained. >> part of the vocational training to which people are subjected involves working in these factories, some o which,

most of which are textile factories. >> if slave labor is happening or modern slavery, as we tend to call it, what it means is we want to prevent those goods from coming into the commerce of the united states and winding up on shelves and people being able to buy it. >> what did we find? >> reporter: it is difficult for americans to avoid these products, leaving corporations stuck between profit and ethical obligations. >> it seems that american companies are at least finally going to -- are taking some action? >> it's really a moment of reckoning. >> reporter: u.s. customs and border protection enacted a policy in january, detaining all cotton products coming from xinjiang unless the importer can prove their product was not made with forced labor. >> is more being seized now than it ever was before, from china? >> in forced labor? absolutely. >> this is where it's stored? >> reporter: everything you see here, every shirt, every pair of pants, comes from xinjiang. >> more and more are coming?

>> more and more are coming. >> reporter: now must be screened by u.s. officials. >> there are 1,000 cartons today in this container. gone to some discount store, a consumer would have bought it, never knowing the new shirt they were putting on their back was the result of slave labor over in china. >> reporter: whoever imports these items has 90 days to claim them and cooperate with the cbp's investigation. if they don't, the items are either sent back or destroyed. the chinese government calls these allegations of forced labor an outrageous lie. >> so-called genocide, forced labor, are lies of the century. >> reporter: the chinese embassy in the u.s. has evaded repeated requests for interviews with abc news. instead, they sent us a link to a statement saying some uighurs were part of cotton picking forces. they work together, care for each other, forged a deep friendship. these cotton pickers in and out of xinjiang were all voluntary.

but she says she was not a willing participant. this is a photo she sent to her husband, standing outside a textile factory in xinjiang, where she says she was forced to work. the chinese deny all gazira's allegations, claiming she left china to avoid paying back a loan. they made this video in an attempt to prove it. gazira and her lawyer, belash, escaped the long arm of china thanks to a nonprofit organization, china aid. they are now applying for asylum. but not everyone they love has been so fortunate. >> my wife and my three sons, they haven't america visa. i can't lift you, i can't lift my children. my wife says, their aim is killing you, arrest you, deporting you. if you die, if you are shot, if

you are kidnapped, how could we live? >> reporter: belash is fighting to get his family here, a place he finally feels safe. >> this is my favorite book. i read it a lot. and my english is great and beautiful -- and yeah. >> reporter: for gazira, america provides an opportunity to keep telling her story, loudly, without threat of retribution. here gazira has found something she feared she might never have again. peace, serenity, and audaciously, hope.

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