Does anyone still want to help the Uyghurs?

An estimated 1m Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities were detained in “re-education” camps during a security crackdown in China from 2017 to 2019.

Belly in the dust, Guan Heng risked everything to film sites in China’s north-western region of Xinjiang. Once uploaded online his videos showed the world where Chinese authorities were detaining Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities. In 2021 the first Trump administration declared China’s campaign in Xinjiang a form of genocide. A few months later Mr Guan fled China and made his way across the American border to seek asylum. But that made him a target of the second Trump administration, which detained Mr Guan in August for having crossed the border illegally.

Leaked 'Xinjiang police files' had revealed Uyghur detention camps in China. (File photo.)(Agencies)

On December 15th a lawyer representing America’s homeland-security department said Mr Guan could be flown to Uganda to apply for asylum there. But Uganda would very probably send Mr Guan back to China, reckons his lawyer Chen Chuangchuang. That would be in spite of the principle of non-refoulement, which prohibits states from sending individuals back to a country where they may face abuses, he adds.

An estimated 1m Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities were detained in “re-education” camps during a security crackdown in China from 2017 to 2019. Some of the camps were then shut down; others were converted into factories or prisons, and those who lived in them were either released, sent to do forced labour or imprisoned. Uyghurs who went abroad were cut off from their families; many sought asylum in countries such as Canada, where governments fast-tracked settlement processes for them.

Now Uyghurs who fled are losing protections as China pressures other countries to hand them over, and as America and Europe have grown more hostile towards refugees. China promotes Xinjiang as a tourist paradise–and a safe place to which Uyghurs should return. Its authorities deny that any human-rights abuses have ever occurred in the province. Such allegations are the “lie of the century”, says Lin Jian, a foreign-ministry spokesman. “Xinjiang enjoys economic growth, social stability and harmony among all ethnic groups, and people there live a better life.”

In February Thailand deported 40 Uyghurs who had been in detention in Bangkok for a decade back to China, despite protests from the un. Turkey, a longtime hub for exiled Uyghurs because of their shared Turkic roots, has been cancelling some Uyghurs’ residency permits, detaining them in deportation centres and pressuring them to sign “voluntary return” forms, according to Human Rights Watch (hrw), a monitor of such things. Since 2024 Turkey’s courts have been ruling that non-refoulement does not apply to Uyghurs because they may not be at risk of ill-treatment or torture in China after all. And last month Germany deported a Uyghur woman to China after denying her asylum application. German authorities said it was a mistake and the woman managed to leave China quickly for Turkey, but the incident raised broader fears, says Louisa Greve of The Uyghur Human Rights Project, a charity in Washington, dc.

Meanwhile China is allowing some Uyghurs to travel in and out of Xinjiang to bolster its claims of normality. Official media have featured Uyghur returnees on state-sponsored tours to Hotan, Kashgar, Urumqi and Turpan in recent months, often waving Chinese flags, taking photos with banners that say “Give thanks to the party” and stating that they are proud of Xinjiang’s development under Chinese leadership. Uyghurs who participate in these tours “know everything is fake” but co-operate so they can see their families, alleges Yalkun Uluyol, an hrw researcher who has conducted interviews with 23 Uyghurs travelling in and out of China.

China’s authorities portray targets of repatriation as criminals who have broken laws by crossing the country’s borders and as potential terrorists who could attack China. They are particularly concerned about Uyghurs in Syria, who have combat experience and talk menacingly about revenge on China. The Syrian government has promised not to allow Syrian territory to be used for “activities that undermine China’s national security, sovereignty and interests”. In November rumours emerged that Syria was planning to deport 400 Uyghurs to China after the country’s foreign minister made an official visit to Beijing, though Syrian authorities denied it

Syria is in a delicate spot. Thousands of Uyghur fighters have been incorporated into the country’s new army. A Uyghur commander named Abdulaziz Dawood Khudaberdi, also known as Zahid, was also reportedly appointed a brigadier-general. The biggest Uyghur militant group, formerly known as the Turkistan Islamic Party, has also rebranded. It now says it is a community organisation that supports Uyghur-language schools, explains Abduweli Ayup, a researcher who visited north-western Syria in October. But he also encountered more radical Uyghurs who still want to “fight with China as soon as possible”. As long as that threat exists, China’s global hunt for Uyghurs will continue.