Press Release – For immediate release
20 June 2018
Contact: World Uyghur Congress www.uyghurcongress.org
0049 (0) 89 5432 1999 or [email protected]

In recent years, tens of thousands of Uyghurs have fled persecution by the Chinese government in East Turkistan as refugees and asylum seekers. After an often difficult and dangerous journey, many Uyghurs have been granted refuge in countries across the world, where they are active and contributing members of society.

However, they face a very difficult situation, cut off from their homeland, culture, family and friends. This has been exacerbated in the past year by efforts from the Chinese government to cut off all forms of communication between the Uyghur diaspora and those still living in East Turkistan. Starting in April 2017, many Uyghurs living outside East Turkistan lost all contact with their friends and loved ones and have not heard from them since.

This has led to a number of heartbreaking situations for the Uyghur people. This month, WUC President Dolkun Isa was notified of the passing of his mother. He had not been able to see her in 24 years after fleeing persecution in China and settling in Germany. He had not been able to speak with her for over a year and was only notified of her death one month after. Mr. Isa still has no information about the health or well-being of his 90-year-old father. This is sadly not unique, as Uyghur refugees and asylum seekers across the world are experiencing similar heartbreak.

In the meantime, an estimated 1 million Uyghurs in East Turkistan have been rounded up by Chinese authorities and arbitrarily detained in political indoctrination camps where they are subjected to indoctrination aimed at eroding their ties to their ethnicity and religion. Uyghurs with family members living abroad have been targeted in particular for detention and the Chinese government has detained family members of Uyghur human rights activists, journalists or any individuals who engage in political activism. Over 30 family members of RFA journalists have been detained due to their reporting of the situation in East Turkistan and almost every family in the Uyghur diaspora has someone who is missing or detained.

Uyghurs living outside China are then faced with an impossible choice: to speak out about the massive human rights violations in East Turkistan and the attack on Uyghur identity and culture by the Chinese government and risk the lives and well-being of their families, or remain silent while their countrymen suffer and the unique Uyghur identity is eroded.

The situation is even worse for Uyghur refugees who are unable to make it to a safe host country. The Chinese government has relentlessly pursued Uyghur refugees, pressuring other governments to forcibly return these individuals.

In the past 15 years, at least 300 Uyghurs have been forcibly returned to China from 16 different countries. These individuals were students, refugees and asylum seekers.

In 2014, 109 Uyghurs were returnedto China from Thailand. Just this year, at least 22 Uyghur students were forcibly returnedto China from Egypt after Egyptian authorities rounded up approximately 200 Uyghur students in the country, likely at China’s request. Since their extradition, we have received no information about their welfare or whereabouts in any of these cases. Hundreds of Uyghur refugees have disappeared in this way.

In most of these cases, Uyghur refugees and asylum seekers were detained by police in their host countries. After their arrests, the Chinese government files an extradition request with the respective national government and puts political pressure and uses economic leverage to ensure that the individuals are extradited. The Chinese government uses the narrative of terrorism to justify its requests for extradition. Terrorism has been used as justification by the Chinese government for serious human rights violations against Uyghurs since the 9/11 terrorism attacks in NYC.

There are sadly several current situations involving Uyghur China pressuring other states to return Uyghurs living abroad to China. In Bulgaria, 5 Uyghur asylumseekers are at significant risk of being deported to China. In another situation, 11 Uyghurswho were arrested in Malaysia, after escaping from an immigration detention centre in Thailand where they had been arbitrarily detained since 2014, are at risk of extradition. The Malaysian government has acknowledged that they have received an official extradition request from China for these 11 individuals. The Chinese government has claimed that all 11 are terrorists and linked them with the Islamic State, despite the fact that they had been detained in Thailand since 2014.

On World Refugee Day, the World Uyghur Congress strongly urges the international community to:

1. Abide by their obligations under the 1951 Refugee Convention and the principle on non-refoulment and immediately cease any extradition of Uyghur refugees and asylum seekers to China, where they would be at risk of serious human rights violations including enforced disappearance, arbitrary detention and torture.
2. Strongly condemn China’s harassment of the Uyghur diaspora community and its acts of reprisals against the family members of Uyghurs in the diaspora for their human rights activism or political engagement.
3. Demand that China re-open lines of communication between the Uyghur diaspora and the family and friends still living in East Turkistan.