“Black jails“, illegal prisons that are kept hidden by the government, have been confirmed to exist in China, according to a weekly magazine run by the state itself.

These black jails are reserved for petitioners who file complaints against the government, most of whom are victims of injustices such as land grabs, physical assault, corruption and discrimination, according to a report published last week by the state-run magazine Outlook.

Most of these prisoners have “come to Beijing out of desperation after they hit a dead end in their localities,” said a government official who spoke under terms of anonymity in a report by CNN. These prisoners are often victims of misdeeds in their own localities by the government itself.

“The existence of black jails in the heart of Beijing makes a mockery of the Chinese government’s rhetoric on improving human rights and respecting the rule of law,” exclaimed Sophie Richardson, the Asia advocacy director for Human Rights Watch. The organization itself has published a report last month on China’s black jails.

While the Outlook report has also been published online by China’s official news agency Xinhua, the government maintains its stand that such detention centers do not exist.

“I’m not sure what evidence the report of Human Rights Watch is based on,” said China’s foreign affairs ministry in a statement. “I can tell you that there are no such black jails in China.”

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