Uyghur families’ detention in Turkey raises fears of deportation to China

Uyghur families’ detention in Turkey raises fears of deportation to China
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Two Uyghur couples and a 1-month-old baby face possible deportation to China after being arrested by Turkish authorities and placed in administrative detention at a removal center, raising renewed concerns over the treatment of Uyghurs seeking refuge in Turkey.

According to the article published on stockholmcf.org, the families were initially taken to a deportation center in the northwestern province of Kırklareli before being transferred to another facility in İzmir, where the provincial migration directorate extended their administrative detention. Their lawyer filed an objection with a criminal magistrate of peace.

The detained adults have been living in Turkey for about 11 years with long-term residence permits, and all four of the children were born in the country.

Since late 2016 Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region have been subjected to mass arbitrary detention, torture and other abuses that rights groups and United Nations experts have described as crimes against humanity. Turkey has long served as a refuge for Uyghurs due to shared linguistic and cultural ties.

In addition to sharing a religion with the majority of Turkey’s population, Uyghurs — a Turkic ethnic group — also speak a similar language. An estimated 50,000 Uyghurs are currently living in Turkey, making it the largest Uyghur diaspora in the world. But a Turkey-China extradition treaty signed in 2017 that is still awaiting ratification by the Turkish Parliament has led to fears that it could be used to target Uyghurs in Turkey.