DNA samples required for travel papers as border area in China’s Xinjiang tightens immigration procedures in lead-up to Ramadan
South China Morning Post, 7 June 2016
By Nectar Gan – People living in a border prefecture in China’s Xinjiang region must now give DNA samples when applying for immigration documents, official media in the mainly Muslim area reported.
The tougher regulations were put in force just before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which started on Monday and was marked by the government’s customary ban on civil servants, students and children from taking part in fasting.
Residents in the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture who want to apply for any type of immigration documents are required from this month to go to the police station near their registered homes to have their DNA samples, fingerprints, voiceprints and a three-dimensional image collected, the prefectural Communist Party committee newspaper the Yili Daily reported.
The new policy applies to applications for passports, two-way permits to Hong Kong and Macau, entry permits to Taiwan, and renewals of these permits.
Applicants who fail to provide all the biological identification information needed will have their applications refused, the report said.
The prefecture of Ili, bordering Kazakhstan, is an ethnically diverse area of 2.5 million people, including Kazakhs, Uygurs and Mongolians.
Some 64.7 per cent of residents are ethnic minorities and the rest Han Chinese, according to official statistics.
The policy comes amid the authorities’ efforts to combat a surge in violence in Xinjiang blamed by the authorities on Islamist separatists who they say have links with jihadist militant groups including Islamic State.
Uygur rights groups say government restrictions on Islam in Xinjiang have added to ethnic tensions in the region, where hundreds have died in attacks in recent years.
The government said in a white paper last week that freedom of religion in the region was “unparalleled” set against any period in Xinjiang’s history.
China’s ruling Communist Party is officially atheist and for years has banned government employees and minors from fasting in Xinjiang, home to the more than 10 million, mostly Muslim Uygur minority.
Several local government departments in Xinjiang have posted notices on their websites in the past week ordering restrictions on fasting during Ramadan.
“Party members, cadres, civil servants, students and minors must not fast for Ramadan and must not take part in religious activities,” a notice posted on Thursday on the government website of central Xinjiang’s Korla city said.
“During the Ramadan month, food and drink businesses must not close,” it added.
The Yili Daily reported that the number of applications for immigration documents in Ili has “skyrocketed” in the past year, from 20,000 in 2014 to 100,000 in 2015, after the authorities “twice simplified application requirements”.
More than 200,000 immigration documents are expected to be issued this year, the report said.
Additional reporting by Agence France Presse