Malaysian President vows to not extradite Uighur refugees to China

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said his country would not deport Uighurs to China if they applied for asylum in Malaysia.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said his country would not deport Uighurs to China if they applied for asylum in Malaysia.

This came in a speech given by Mahathir in the Malaysian parliament, in response to questions from the opposition, about the persecution of the Muslim Uighur minority by the Chinese authorities.

The Malaysian Prime Minister referred to the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of countries, and called on the international community to recognize the oppression of Muslims Uighurs.

Mahathir stressed that the Uighurs have legitimate concerns for their lives, adding, “If Uighurs ask for asylum in Malaysia, Malaysia will not deport Uighurs.”

Since 1949, Beijing has controlled East Turkestan, home to the Turkish Muslim Uighur minority, and they call it “Xinjiang”, meaning “new frontier.”

In August 2018, a UN human rights committee reported that China is holding about a million Muslim Uighurs in secret camps.

According to official statistics, there are 30 million Muslims in China, of whom 23 million are Uighurs, while unofficial reports estimate the number of Muslims at nearly 100 million, or about 9.5 percent of the population.