{"id":708,"date":"2021-06-10T18:37:11","date_gmt":"2021-06-10T15:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/?p=708"},"modified":"2021-06-10T18:37:13","modified_gmt":"2021-06-10T15:37:13","slug":"uyghurs-are-being-deported-from-muslim-countries-raising-concerns-about-chinas-growing-reach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/uyghurs-are-being-deported-from-muslim-countries-raising-concerns-about-chinas-growing-reach\/","title":{"rendered":"UYGHURS ARE BEING DEPORTED FROM MUSLIM COUNTRIES, RAISING CONCERNS ABOUT CHINA\u2019S GROWING REACH"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/2021\/06\/08\/middleeast\/uyghur-arab-muslim-china-disappearances-cmd-intl\/index.html\">CNN<\/a>.&nbsp;8 June 2021<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.uyghurcongress.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/unnamed-2021-06-10T182813.411.jpg?resize=190%2C107&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-44666\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Below is an article published by&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/2021\/06\/08\/middleeast\/uyghur-arab-muslim-china-disappearances-cmd-intl\/index.html\">CNN<\/a>. Photo:AFP.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Amannisa Abdullah and her husband, Ahmad Talip, were on their way to shop for baby clothes in\u00a0Dubai,\u00a0when the message that changed both their lives came through. Ahmad read it and announced an abrupt change of plan: He had to report to a police station immediately.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>Ahmad dropped Amannisa&nbsp;off at a friend\u2019s house that day in February 2018, promising to pick her up later. He never came back.&nbsp;&nbsp;In their Dubai apartment, a sleepless Amannisa prayed and cried through the night, watching the hours pass as her repeated calls to Ahmad went unanswered.&nbsp;The next morning, the heavily pregnant 29-year-old shuffled out of the door, hugging her 5-year-old son close. They hailed a taxi to the police station where she tried to explain her predicament to a police officer.&nbsp;&nbsp;As she spoke, her little boy tugged at her hand. Quietly, he pointed towards a jail cell where Ahmad was sitting.&nbsp;For 13 days, Amannisa shuttled back and forth between her home and the jail, pleading with law enforcement officials to release Ahmad.&nbsp;&nbsp;With each visit, her husband looked more dejected. He told her he was convinced that the long&nbsp;reach&nbsp;of China had reached his&nbsp;Uyghur&nbsp;family&nbsp;in the United Arab Emirates.&nbsp;&nbsp;\u201cIt\u2019s not safe here. You must take our boy and [go] to Turkey,\u201d he told Amannisa in their last conversation. \u201cIf our new baby is a girl, please name her Amina. If he\u2019s a boy, name him Abdullah.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;A week later, Ahmad was sent to the UAE capital, Abu Dhabi. Five days later, Amannisa said, Abu Dhabi authorities told her that he had been extradited to China.&nbsp;Their daughter, Amina, was born a month later&nbsp;in Turkey. She has never met her father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Chinese policy that makes Uyghurs feel like hostages in their own homes<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Amannisa\u2019s testimony is one of more than a dozen&nbsp;accounts&nbsp;collected by CNN, detailing the alleged detention&nbsp;and deportation&nbsp;of&nbsp;Uyghurs&nbsp;at China\u2019s request&nbsp;in three major Arab countries: Egypt, the UAE and Saudi Arabia.CNN has repeatedly reached out to Egypt, the UAE and Saudi Arabia for comment on the extraditions and has not received a response.&nbsp;China\u2019s government has also not responded to CNN\u2019s request for comment.In Egypt, rights groups have documented hundreds of detentions \u2014 and at least 20 deportations \u2014 of&nbsp;Uyghurs&nbsp;In 2017,&nbsp;the majority of them students at the prestigious Islamic university of Al-Azhar.In Saudi Arabia&nbsp;between 2018 and 2020, at least one&nbsp;Uyghur&nbsp;Muslim&nbsp;was allegedly detained and deported after performing the Umrah&nbsp;pilgrimage in Islam\u2019s holiest cities.&nbsp;Another was arrested after a pilgrimage and faces deportation.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The families of the deported fear their loved ones have ended up among the estimated 2 million&nbsp;Uyghurs who have been sent to internment camps in Xinjiang in recent years.&nbsp;As Beijing\u2019s global influence expands, rights activists fear that even as Western nations take China to task over its treatment of&nbsp;Uyghurs, countries in the Middle East and beyond will increasingly be willing to acquiesce to its crackdown on members of the ethnic group at home and abroad.&nbsp;A Human Rights Watch report released&nbsp;in April said China had tracked down hundreds of&nbsp;Uyghurs across the globe, forcing them to return and face persecution. In many cases \u201cit is impossible to find out what has happened\u201d to them, the report said.For some&nbsp;Uyghurs, the extraditions from Muslim countries will be especially galling, shattering notions of Islamic solidarity and deepening feelings of isolation on a world stage where China\u2019s power has grown rapidly.&nbsp;CNN has seen a document issued by Dubai\u2019s public prosecutor on February 20, 2018 \u2014&nbsp;eight days after Ahmad Talip was taken into custody&nbsp;\u2014 confirming a Chinese extradition request for him, listed in the paperwork under his Chinese name, Aihemaiti Talifu.&nbsp;The document says that Dubai authorities initially decided to release Ahmad due to insufficient proof that he should be extradited. The Dubai prosecutor\u2019s office instructed police \u201cto stop searching the above-mentioned person and lift all the restrictions on him, unless he is wanted for another reason.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>CNN has seen a document issued by Dubai\u2019s public prosecutor confirming China\u2019s request to extradite Ahmad Talip. It says Dubai authorities initially decided to release him.But on February 25, 2018, Amannisa was told that Ahmad had been deported.&nbsp;Authorities in the UAE never explained what her husband was accused of. Three years on, she still has no answers.&nbsp;\u201cIf my husband [has committed] any crime, why they don\u2019t tell me? Why China don\u2019t tell me?\u201d she asked CNN.\u201dI don\u2019t know if my husband is still alive or not,\u201d she said.&nbsp;\u201cI have no news about him from China, from UAE. Both [are] silent. They are silent, completely silence.\u201dWhy you don\u2019t obey your own court paper? You say you are Muslim country. And I never believed that since this happened, I never believe you.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;Dubai authorities and the UAE\u2019s Foreign Ministry have not responded to CNN\u2019s repeated requests for comment on Ahmad\u2019s case.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Deportations from Muslim-majority countries&nbsp;<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Xinjiang is among China\u2019s most ethnically diverse regions, home to a variety of predominantly Muslim ethnic groups; the&nbsp;Uyghurs, who have their own distinct culture and language, are the largest of these.Many&nbsp;Uyghurs have long felt marginalized in their homeland. Inter-ethnic tensions have been stoked by grievances linked to allegations of unfair economic policies and government-backed restrictions on religious behavior, halal food and Islamic dress.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Amannisa Abdullah with daughter, Amina, 3, left, and son Musa, 8. Amina was born in Turkey and has never met her father, Ahmad Talip.&nbsp;In recent years, under President Xi Jinping, Beijing\u2019s policy towards the region\u2019s minority groups has hardened noticeably, prompting many to head overseas.&nbsp;Since 2016, evidence has emerged that the Chinese government has been operating huge, fortified centers to detain&nbsp;Uyghur&nbsp;citizens in Xinjiang. As many as two million people may have been taken to the camps, according to the US State Department.&nbsp;Former detainees and&nbsp;activists call these \u201cconcentration camps\u201d&nbsp;\u2014 places where inmates are&nbsp;subjected to intense indoctrination intended to de-Islamize them, forced to learn&nbsp;Mandarin, and instructed in Communist Party propaganda.China vehemently denies allegations of human rights abuses, insisting that the Xinjiang camps are voluntary \u201cvocational training centers,\u201d designed to stamp out religious extremism and terrorism.&nbsp;But testimonies collected by CNN from former detainees describe incidents of forced labor, torture, sexual abuse and even the deaths of fellow detainees.&nbsp;The US State Department has&nbsp;accused Beijing of \u201cgenocide\u201d&nbsp;against the&nbsp;Uyghurs.&nbsp;In addition to cultural assimilation, human rights groups and overseas&nbsp;Uyghur&nbsp;activists have also alleged that the Chinese government coerced&nbsp;Uyghurs to submit to birth control and enforced sterilization.&nbsp;Over the years,&nbsp;Uyghurs abroad have spoken out about relatives who have disappeared in Xinjiang. Families have been ripped apart, and many children are growing up as orphans,&nbsp;with no contact from their parents back home.Abduweli Ayup, a&nbsp;Uyghur&nbsp;activist based in Oslo, says he has documented and confirmed at least 28&nbsp;Uyghur&nbsp;deportations from three Muslim-majority countries between 2017 and 2019: 21 from Egypt, five from Saudi Arabia, and two, including Ahmad,&nbsp;from the UAE, according to Ayup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But he fears this may be only the tip of the iceberg. Too often, he says, family members fear going public about deportations in case it jeopardizes the safety of loved ones who have disappeared, as well as other family members in Xinjiang.&nbsp;In the Middle East, China has adeptly navigated the region\u2019s hodgepodge of political fault lines, its friendships across the region transcending political divides.&nbsp;&nbsp;China has increasingly robust relations with both Saudi Arabia and its regional arch-nemesis Iran.Middle Eastern countries in financial dire straits, such as Lebanon, may find any overtures from China difficult to resist. Similarly, oil-rich Gulf Arab countries facing a pandemic-induced economic slump also view China as a possible financial lifeboat.&nbsp;&nbsp;In a 2019 open letter, more than a dozen Muslim-majority countries \u2014 including the UAE, Iran, Egypt and Saudi Arabia \u2014 publicly endorsed China\u2019s policies in Xinjiang. They were among 37 signatories responding to Western criticism of China at the UN Human Rights Council.&nbsp;&nbsp;Following a visit to Xinjiang&nbsp;in 2020,&nbsp;the UAE\u2019s ambassador to Beijing publicly praised China\u2019s policies in the province. In a&nbsp;sit-down interview with Chinese state media&nbsp;this February, Ali al-Dhaheri said what \u201cimpressed\u201d him the most during the visit was \u201cthe positive plan and vision for Xinjiang \u2014 China wants the region to play an active part in the Chinese economy, provide stability, raise living standards and improve the lives of the region\u2019s people.\u201d&nbsp;For Maya Wang, senior China researcher at Human Rights Watch, the alleged treatment of&nbsp;Uyghurs by the autocratic governments of the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt is not surprising \u2014 despite those countries being signatories to the UN\u2019s Convention Against Torture.&nbsp;&nbsp;\u201cA lot of these governments don\u2019t care about human rights,\u201d she told CNN. \u201cThey are unelected governments that persecute their citizens in their countries. There is no real rule of law and democracy when it comes to deportations of&nbsp;Uyghurs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Disappearances in Egypt&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Maryam Muhammad, 29, has been keeping a dark secret from her two sons. To shield them from the cruel reality they were born into, she tells them their father, Muhtar Rozi, is on a long overseas work trip. He has been gone for almost four years.&nbsp;&nbsp;But Salaheddiin and Alaeddin rarely ask about him. They were only 18 months old and 5 months old when he disappeared.&nbsp;Maryam last heard from her husband on July 16, 2017, when he sent her a message saying he had been detained.&nbsp;&nbsp;Rozi was among dozens of&nbsp;Uyghurs rounded up by Egyptian security services \u2014 believed to have been acting at the behest of the Chinese government \u2014 in a dramatic sweep documented by human rights groups.&nbsp;According to Human Rights Watch, at least 62&nbsp;Uyghurs were arrested in a series of July 2017 raids at restaurants and supermarkets popular with the ethnic group, as well as at their homes. Many of those detained were students at Al-Azhar University.&nbsp;&nbsp;Maryam is stoic. Recounting her story, she sticks to the facts, leaving out the emotional impact on her family. But she chokes up when she remembers her husband\u2019s last words to her: \u201cHe said: \u2018You are my precious. I love you so much.&#8217;\u201d&nbsp;\u201cI\u2019m tired of trying to be strong,\u201d she says, wiping away the tears. \u201cI know I must try to be strong because of my children, because of my husband.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Maryam Muhammad, her child and her husband, Muhtar Rozi, who disappeared during a crackdown on Uyghur Muslims in Egypt.China and Egypt have never officially acknowledged the alleged deportations, which occurred less than a year after the two countries signed a security cooperation agreement \u2014 and less than three weeks after the Egyptian Interior Ministry and China\u2019s Ministry of Public Security signed a \u201ctechnical cooperation document.\u201dNeither government has responded to CNN\u2019s request for comment on the events of 2017.&nbsp;&nbsp;Earlier that year, China had demanded that all&nbsp;Uyghur&nbsp;students studying abroad return home, according to Human Rights Watch.Maryam says the family had all the required documentation to prove their legal status in Egypt: \u201cWe have passports. We have [Egyptian] residency cards and we also have permission of the Chinese Embassy in Egypt to enter the school,\u201d she told CNN. \u201cSo, we did not worry much about this.\u201d&nbsp;She showed CNN documents confirming her family\u2019s legal status and a marriage certificate issued by the Chinese Embassy in Cairo.&nbsp;As news of the raids began to spread in early July 2017, the family went into hiding, drawing up plans to flee the country. Maryam and the boys would fly to Istanbul, but since they believed Muhtar was more likely to be arrested, he would take a ferry to Jordan, hoping to escape state surveillance.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But in his last message to his wife, Muhtar told her he had been detained at Egypt\u2019s Nuwaiba port.&nbsp;She searched frantically for him \u2014 even risking a flight back to Egypt and hiring a lawyer. But the police told her they had no record of him.&nbsp;&nbsp;\u201cIt\u2019s like my husband became air,\u201d she says.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Disappearance from pilgrimage<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>A small group of&nbsp;Uyghurs stand silently in the snow outside Istanbul\u2019s Saudi consulate, infamous as the site of the October 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Nuriman Veli leads the group, her glasses fogging up from the cold. Hands trembling, she holds up a placard with a message to Saudi Arabia: \u201cDon\u2019t deport my father to China, send him to Turkey where he is a resident.\u201d&nbsp;Her father, Hamdullah Abduweli, was detained in the kingdom while on pilgrimage to Islam\u2019s holy cities, Mecca and Medina. He has not yet been deported, and&nbsp;Nuriman and her sister are in a race against time, desperate not to lose another parent.&nbsp;More than four years ago, they lost contact with their mother in Xinjiang. \u201cIf we lose our father, it will destroy us,\u201d she said.&nbsp;The pandemic prompted Saudi Arabia to close its airports just as Hamdullah was performing his pilgrimage, leaving him stranded in Saudi Arabia.&nbsp;&nbsp;In October, he told family members he suspected he was being trailed by \u201cChinese agents.\u201d A month later, Hamdullah and his&nbsp;Uyghur&nbsp;roommate were detained by Saudi authorities. Despite calls for their release by Human Rights Watch and others, the two have not been heard from since.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>CNN has blurred a portion of the photo to protect the men\u2019s personal details.Hamdullah is at least the second&nbsp;Uyghur&nbsp;reported to have been detained during a Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca.In July 2018, Osman Ahmed was also allegedly arrested by Saudi authorities during a visit to the holy sites.&nbsp;After three months spent trying to locate Osman Ahmed, his family in Turkey was told by an elderly relative in Saudi Arabia that she had received word about Osman\u2019s whereabouts from Saudi authorities.\u201dThey told her: \u2018We sent him back to wherever he is from,&#8217;\u201d Osman Ahmad\u2019s daughter Ilminur Osman&nbsp;told CNN.&nbsp;The family has not been able to confirm Osman\u2019s fate, but they say they have heard from people in Xinjiang that he was spotted in one of the region\u2019s internment camps.CNN reached out to the Saudi government for comment on both cases but did not receive a response.&nbsp;&nbsp;\u201cShame on Saudi Arabia. If they don\u2019t want&nbsp;Uyghurs to come to perform pilgrimage just say: \u2018We do not want you here,&#8217;\u201d activist Ayub told CNN. \u201cDo not do this when people [come] to perform pilgrimage.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was only after her father\u2019s detention that Nuriman found out other&nbsp;Uyghurs had been arrested in Saudi Arabia and forcibly returned to China. \u201cIf I knew, I would have told him not to go,\u201d Nuriman says.Activists say the situation is a damning indictment of the Muslim world\u2019s leadership.&nbsp;\u201cThese countries pride themselves for being leaders of the Islamic world, but they don\u2019t bat an eyelid when returning people for persecution for being Muslim,\u201d says Wang. \u201cIt is quite outrageous and I think it\u2019s hypocritical, but that illustrates the geopolitical reality.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Growing Sino-Turk relations&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Even in Muslim countries that have traditionally been seen as places of safety for&nbsp;Uyghur&nbsp;Muslims, the sand is shifting.&nbsp;&nbsp;Over the last decade, thousands of&nbsp;Uyghurs have settled in Turkey, with&nbsp;Uyghur&nbsp;neighborhoods and schools cropping up in the country\u2019s major cities.&nbsp;&nbsp;In addition to sharing a religion with the majority of Turkey\u2019s population,&nbsp;Uyghurs \u2014 a Turkic ethnic group \u2014 also speak a similar language.&nbsp;But in recent years, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan \u2014 who once championed&nbsp;Uyghur&nbsp;rights \u2014 has toned down his criticism of China\u2019s Xinjiang policy, in an apparent bid to boost relations with Beijing.&nbsp;An extradition treaty between the two countries, ratified late last year by China and now awaiting approval by Turkey\u2019s Parliament, is exacerbating fears. Turkish officials have sought to reassure&nbsp;Uyghurs, as well as the Turkish public, that they will not extradite&nbsp;Uyghurs back to China.&nbsp;\u201cIt is not right to interpret this as Turkey will hand over&nbsp;Uyghur&nbsp;Turks to China,\u201d Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said last December, adding that Beijing had made requests in the past, but that Turkey had not complied.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But at least four&nbsp;Uyghurs, including a mother and her two children, were deported by Turkey to&nbsp;Tajikistan&nbsp;last year, according to activist&nbsp;Abduweli Ayup.He says multiple testimonies suggest they eventually ended up in China.&nbsp;&nbsp;Last September, Turkey\u2019s Directorate General of Migration Management denied that Turkey had extradited&nbsp;Uyghurs to China. \u201cWe have not directly, or through third countries, deported any&nbsp;Uyghur&nbsp;Turks to China and Turkey does not and will not ever have such a policy,\u201d the directorate said in a written statement.But official statements like these do little to assuage&nbsp;Uyghurs\u2019 concerns.&nbsp;&nbsp;A small Istanbul apartment is the only home Amannisa\u2019s 3-year-old daughter Amina has ever known. As she follows developments in Turkey, Amannisa fears the world is closing in on her&nbsp;and her children. &nbsp;&nbsp;A few weeks after she arrived in Istanbul,&nbsp;she trekked across the city, asking passers-by for directions to the sea. She told them she wanted to take her children to enjoy the view, but says her real intentions reveal the depths of her despair.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CNN.&nbsp;8 June 2021 Below is an article published by&nbsp;CNN. Photo:AFP. Amannisa Abdullah and her husband, Ahmad Talip, were on their way to shop for baby clothes in\u00a0Dubai,\u00a0when the message that changed both their lives came through. Ahmad read it and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=708"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":709,"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708\/revisions\/709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}