In the wide-ranging book Let Us Dream: the Path to a Better Future, he said as quoted by The Guardian: “I think often of persecuted peoples: the Rohingya, the poor Uighurs, the Yazidi"

The pope has spoken out before about the Rohingyas who fled Myanmar, and the killing of Yazidi by Islamic State in Iraq, but it is the first time he has mentioned Uighurs, reports The Guardian.

Who are Uighur Muslims?

Uighur Muslims are a Turkic minority ethnic group originating from and culturally affiliated with the general region of Central and East Asia. It is now widely publicized that their human rights are crushed by China and they were sent to "re-education camps" by the communist regime in Beijing.

The Uighurs are recognized as native to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China.

An American representative at the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination said in 2018 that the committee had received many credible reports that 1 million ethnic Uyghurs in China have been held in "re-education camps" by the Chinese authorities.