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PRESS RELEASE: WUC Welcomes Kazakh Court Decision Not to Deport Asylum Seeker to China

PRESS RELEASE: WUC Welcomes Kazakh Court Decision Not to Deport Asylum Seeker to China

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

The WUC was encouraged today’s decision by court in Kazakhstan to not extradite Sayragul Sauytbay, an ethnic Kazakh from East Turkistan who had sought asylum in Kazakhstan after fleeing Chinese authorities. She was initially held on charges of illegally crossing the border into Kazakhstan after she fled East Turkistan where she being forced to teach Chinese history to detainees in political indoctrination camp.

We are very pleased that the Kazakh Court has decided not to return Ms. Sauytbay to China, despite the Chinese government’s demands to extradite her. If returned, she likely would have been subjected to torture, arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance and other serious human rights violations.

The Uyghur people are very familiar with the plight of refugees and asylum seekers who are forcibly returned to China. In the past 15 years, at least 300 Uyghurs have been forcibly returned to China from 16 different countries, including Kazakhstan. These individuals were students, refugees and asylum seekers.

Since 1998, at least 16 Uyghur refugees and asylum seekers were forcibly returned from Kazakhstan to China. In 2014, 109 Uyghurs were returned to China from Thailand. Just this year, at least 22 Uyghur students were forcibly returned to China from Egypt after Egyptian authorities rounded up approximately 200 Uyghur students in the country, 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.

There are sadly several current situations involving China pressuring other states to return Uyghurs living abroad to China. In Bulgaria, five Uyghur asylum seekers are at significant risk of being deported to China and 11 Uyghurs refugees are currently on trial in Malaysia, with China pushing for their extradition.

We sincerely hope that Ms. Sauytbay’s case and the undeniable evidence of the atrocities occurring in East Turkistan at the hands of the Chinese authorities will change the Kazakh government’s position towards refugees and asylum seekers fleeing China. We strongly urge the Kazakh government to refrain from forcibly returning any more Uyghur refugees and asylum seekers to China.

The President of the WUC, Dolkun Isa, commented on the developments, saying “the WUC hopes that the decision in Ms. Sauytbay’s case indicates that the Kazakh government is finally waking up to the numerous atrocities being perpetrated against ethnic Kazakh, Uyghurs and other ethnic groups by the Chinese authorities in East Turkistan.”

Since April 2017, over 1 million Uyghurs and ethnic Kazakhs have been rounded up and arbitrarily detained in these political indoctrination camps due to their ethnic identity and Muslim religion. As the testimony of Ms. Sauytbay corroborates, these innocent people are being subjected to torture, arbitrary detention and forced to endure relentless indoctrination aimed at eroding their ties to their ethnic group and religion and fostering loyalty to the Chinese. Over 35 Uyghurs are confirmed to have already died in the camps (although the actual number is certainly much higher) and numbers of those detained in the camps continues to rise.

We recognize that the Kazakh Government finds itself in a difficult position due to its economic ties with China and growing Chinese influence in the country, but the crimes against humanity being perpetrated against the people of East Turksitan can no longer be ignored. We urge the Kazakh government to stand up to China, for the sake Kazakhs, the Uyghurs and its own citizens.