Press Releases

08/15/2018

Germany must not be fooled by China’s government

Persecution of the Uyghur people is a real threat (Press Release)

Uyghurs in front of a mosque in Kashgar. More than four months after the deportation of a Uyghur refugee to China, there is still no information about his whereabouts. The STP demands that Germany steps up its efforts to retrieve him. Image: Carsten ten Brink/Kashgar via Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

According to the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP), the German government must intensify its efforts to save an Uyghur man who was illegally deported to China. On Wednesday, the Göttingen-based human rights organization stated that this is a matter of life and death for the young man. Ulrich Delius, the STP’s director, stated: “It is deeply unsatisfactory that there is still no information on his whereabouts – more than four months after his deportation. The federal government should not just put up with China’s strategy of holding out and of denying the persecution of the Uyghur people.”

The Uyghur asylum seeker had been deported from Munich to China on April 3, 2018. The German federal government has since confirmed that it was informed about the deportation on April 6, but China’s authorities did not respond to repeated inquiries by the German Embassy in Beijing. “We are seriously concerned that the Uyghur is falsely accused of ‘supporting terrorism’ because he applyied for asylum in Bavaria, and because he also participated in public protests against the persecution of the Uyghur people,” Delius stated. In the exes of the Chinese state security, anyone who advocates for the human rights of the Uyghurs is a “supporter of terrorism” – and the Uyghurs’ protests are seen as a potential security risk for the People’s Republic.

The STP assumes that China’s security authorities are fully informed about the background and the whereabouts of the deported Uyghur, but refuse to provide information for political reasons. The Chinese authorities also regularly hold back information in connection with spectacular deportations of Uyghurs from Southeast Asia.

China continues to deny that the Uyghur people are suffering from persecution. Last Monday, for instance, Hu Lianhe from the United Front Work Department (responsible for nationality issues in China) told the United Nations that there weren’t any reeducation centers and camps for Muslim Uyghurs and Kazakhs. In Geneva, he told the Committee on Racial Discrimination (CERD) that there are vocational training centers to help the Uyghur people to have better chances on the labor market. According to estimates, there are as many as one million Uyghurs and Kazakhs being held in reeducation centers – against their will. China’s government denies that they are subjected to political brainwashing. “The international community must not be fooled by China’s government. The persecution of the Uyghurs is very real. There are innumerable testimonies to prove it,” Delius emphasized.

Header picture: Carsten ten Brink/Kashgar via Flickr