Uyghur Man Held in Qatar Now En Route to US

Aug. 6, 2019 --  A Uyghur man facing deportation to China from Qatar last week is now on his way to the United States, U.S. government sources say.

Ablikim Yusup, 53, had appealed for days for help on social media posts from Qatar’s Doha International Airport, saying that he feared for his safety if sent back.

Yusup had previously tried to enter Europe by way of Bosnia, a Muslim-majority country, but had been sent back to Qatar, which then said it would deport him to Beijing, according to media reports.

“We can confirm that Mr. Ablikim Yusup is safely en route to the United States,” a U.S. State Department spokesman said on Tuesday.

“The United States is alarmed by China’s highly repressive campaign against Uighurs, ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other Muslims in Xinjiang,” the State Department said.

“This campaign includes mass arbitrary detentions. The Chinese government has, by our estimates, detained more than one million individuals since April  2017.”

“In these camps, there are credible reports of torture, inhumane conditions, and deaths. Individuals there are forced to renounce their ethnic identities, religious beliefs, or cultural and religious practices,” the State Department said.

“We will continue to call on China to reverse its counterproductive policies that conflate terrorism with peaceful religious and political expression, to immediately release all those arbitrarily detained, and to cease efforts to coerce members of its Muslim minority groups residing abroad to return to China to face an uncertain fate,” the State Department said.

Meanwhile, Germany-based World Uyghur Congress welcomed news of Yusup’s flight to the U.S., adding, “The international community must take steps to ensure Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims are provided protection.”

Many held in camps

Authorities in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) have held up to 1.5 million Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities accused of harboring “strong religious views” and “politically incorrect” ideas in internment camps since April 2017.

While Beijing initially denied the existence of the camps, China this year changed tack and started describing the facilities as “boarding schools” that provide vocational training for Uyghurs, discourage radicalization, and help protect the country from terrorism.

Claims by China this week that it has already released almost all of those held in the camps were met with skepticism by human rights and Uyghur exile groups, who said that China is seeking to blunt demands for accountability for its treatment of Muslim ethnic groups in the Xinjiang region.

In July, Qatar joined several other Muslim states including Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain in publicly supporting China’s actions in Xinjiang, telling the U.N. in a joint letter that Beijing’s policies have countered terrorism in the region.

Reported by RFA's Uyghur Service.

View this story online at:  https://www.rfa.org/english/news/uyghur/route-08062019151423.html

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