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China Targets Foreign Nationals of Uighur Origin

Asim Kashgarian

   WASHINGTON - Chinese authorities are continuing to detain foreign
   nationals of Uighur descent, which experts charge is part of an effort
   by Beijing to prevent any outside access to Xinjiang province.

   VOA interviewed several ethnic Uighurs of different nationalities who
   said they or their family members faced detention upon arriving in
   China. The detained foreign citizens were allegedly jailed, put under
   house arrest or even sent to the so-called reeducation camps, while
   some others were repatriated to their home countries.

   Hankiz Kurban, a Turkish citizen from Istanbul, told VOA that her
   parents, Yahya Kurban, 54, and Amina Kurban, 51, both Turkish citizens
   originating from the region of Xingjian, have been detained since
   Sept.11, 2017, when they were on a trip to operate a clothing business
   in Urumchi, the capital city of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
   "
   I received my mother's voice message asking me, in a trembling voice,
   to contact the Turkish embassy in Beijing and do something for them,"
   Hankiz said, recalling the moment Chinese authorities arrested her. "It
   was the last day I heard from my parents."
   Working on release

   Kurban and her siblings have attempted to find their parents to no
   avail. The Turkish embassy has told them officials there are still
   working with Chinese officials to secure the parents' release.
   Another Turkish citizen of Uighur origin, Muyesser Temel, told VOA that
   her brother, Mehmet Emin Nasir, 40, was arrested in late 2017 in
   Kashgar, where he owned a Turkish curtains store.
   "
   We kept calling [the] Turkish Embassy in Beijing, Turkish Foreign
   Ministry in Ankara, and Turkish Presidential Office. Their answer has
   been, 'Wait, we are working on this case,'" Temel said.
   VOA contacted Turkey's foreign ministry and embassy in Beijing but has
   not received a comment.
   Responding to a parliamentary question regarding incarcerated Turkish
   citizens in China, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu last April
   said his government was using its diplomatic means "in every level" to
   bring them home.
   "
   The problems faced by our citizens around the world and the complaints
   received in this context are closely monitored through our foreign
   representatives. Every diplomatic and legal tool is used in order to
   solve their problems, and the necessary legal, economic and social
   support is provided to our citizens," Cavusoglu said in a written
   response.
   Uighurs are ethnically Turkic and religiously Muslim with a worldwide
   population estimated to be 12 million. More than 90% of them are
   believed to live in their ancestral home of Xinjiang in China's
   northwest region. The remaining Uighurs reside in neighboring central
   Asian states like Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan as well as Turkey and Western
   countries.

   IFRAME: [1]https://www.voanews.com/media/2494366/embed

   Since 2017 China has been accused of detaining almost 1.8 million
   Uighurs and other minority Muslim groups in mass incarceration camps
   where they are forced to abandon their religion. Those outside the
   camps are believed to be under strict government surveillance with no
   access to the outside world.
   China first denied the detention facilities existed but later said they
   were only for "reeducation and vocational training" purposes. Beijing
   has tied its policies in the region to fighting "the three evils of
   terrorism, extremism and separatism." It recently claimed that all
   "students" from "training centers" had "graduated" without giving any
   more details.
   Leaked document
   The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists in November
   released several official Chinese government documents it had obtained,
   revealing that officials in 2017 directed border officials and police
   to hand-pick and arrest foreign nationals of Uighur descent.
   The documents showed that Chinese officials kept track of about 1,535
   people from Xinjiang who had citizenship from various foreign nations,
   with about 75 confirmed to be in China and about 560 whose location was
   undertermined. Of the 75 "red-flagged" people, 26 were Turkish, 23
   Australian, five Canadian, five Swedish, three American, three Uzbek,
   three Finnish, two British, two New Zealanders, one French, and one
   Kyrgyz.
   "
   Personal identification verification should be inspected one by one,
   for those who have already canceled their citizenship and for whom
   suspected terrorism cannot be ruled out, they should be deported. For
   those who haven't canceled their citizenship yet and for whom suspected
   terrorism cannot be ruled out, they should first be placed into
   concentrated education and training and examined," the document
   suggested.

References

   1. https://www.voanews.com/media/2494366/embed

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