For decades, Kasim Kashgar has lived in fear: first as a Uyghur living in China’s Xinjiang region under Beijing’s repressive policies, and later as an exile, acutely aware that speaking out could put his family in China at risk. As a journalist covering Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities for VOA News, Kasim wrote under a pen name. In 2023, the year his asylum was granted, he decided to speak out. This is his story. Voice of America
WASHINGTON — Uyghur Brothers Detained in India Since 2013 Face Deportation Threat Three Uyghur brothers fled persecution in China’s Xinjiang region, crossed into India without proper documents, and were charged under the Public Safety Act. Advocates call for their release, urging the Indian government to grant protection and consider their plea for temporary asylum. Uyghur Student Convicted for Sharing Protest Video on WeChat Kamile Wayit, a Uyghur student, has been convicted of “advocating extremism” in China for posting a video on WeChat that showed protests of lockdown measures. Detained in…
A Uyghur student who was detained in Xinjiang in December after posting a video on WeChat of the “white paper” protests has been convicted of “advocating extremism”. Kamile Wayit, 19, was detained in Atush on 12 December the day after returning home from university in Henan, a province in central China. She has not been heard from since, but last week a spokesperson from China’s ministry for foreign affairs confirmed to the Economist magazine that Wayit had been sentenced on 25 March “for the crime of advocating extremism”. The spokesperson…
Amnesty International says it has heard from a Uyghur student it said had been missing after arriving in Hong Kong earlier this month. The human rights group issued a statement last week saying Abuduwaili Abudureheman had not been heard from after traveling to Hong Kong from South Korea on May 10 to visit a friend. Amnesty said Abudureheman texted a friend telling him he was being interrogated by Chinese police after arriving in Hong Kong. Amnesty demanded authorities in Hong Kong reveal Abudureheman’s whereabouts, citing fears he had been extradited…
China is increasingly barring people, including foreign executives, from leaving the country, according to a report and research. Scores of Chinese nationals and foreigners have been ensnared by exit bans, according to the report from the rights group Safeguard Defenders, while a Reuters analysis has found an apparent surge in court cases involving such bans in recent years. Foreign business lobby groups are voicing concern about the trend, calling it a jarring message as the authorities say the country is open for business after three years of tight Covid-19 restrictions.…
Uyghur Asylum Seekers in US Face Stress From Waiting, Report Finds The Uyghur Human Rights Project recently published a report highlighting the plight of Uyghur asylum seekers in the U.S. who have fled persecution in Xinjiang. The report revealed that Uyghurs experienced significant stress caused by waiting for more than eight years without resolution of their asylum cases. The Uyghur Human Rights Project made 14 recommendations for action to government agencies and civil society groups to quickly resolve outstanding applications. Experts urge Congress to strengthen Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act…
washington — Najmudin Ablet, a Uyghur man from Xinjiang in northwest China, traveled to Turkey in 2016 with a Chinese-issued passport. But since 2017 he has been unable to reach his family still living in Xinjiang, including his wife, two sons and three brothers. All of them were detained and subsequently sentenced for various alleged offenses. One brother died in prison, and another died two months after leaving an internment camp, according to a recent report published by the University of Sheffield in England. Many Uyghurs have similar stories of…
Photographer Sam Biddle engages with members of the Uyghur diaspora who are reclaiming their identity and broadening the public’s perception, from the singular narrative of persecution to include the thousands of years of rich Uyghur history and culture. The exhibition starts on 11 March in Coburg, Victoria The Guardian
Luke Hallam is a writer and editor based in Cambridge. He is a senior editor at Persuasion, an online magazine of ideas and current affairs Perhat Tursun, a controversial and highly acclaimed Uyghur writer, vanished in 2018. He is reportedly enduring a 16-year sentence in a Chinese prison, just one of the many victims of the Communist party’s genocidal campaign against Uyghurs. We don’t know the crime he is accused of, nor the conditions in which he is being kept. Sadly, these circumstances are not unusual: an estimated 1 million…
WASHINGTON — A summary of this week’s Uyghur-related news from around the world: Uyghur mom imprisoned for sending children to Islamic school, report finds An investigation by Radio Free Asia found this week that Ayshemhan Abdulla, a Uyghur woman, was sentenced to 21 years in prison in 2017 in China’s Xinjiang region for sending her children to a local home-based religious school. Abdulla’s arrest was not likely the decision of judicial authorities but rather that of the Chinese Communist Party’s political and legal committee, a Uyghur former police officer told…