October 06, 2024 10:42 (IST)
Follow us:
facebook-white sharing button
twitter-white sharing button
instagram-white sharing button
youtube-white sharing button
TMC MLA chased away, 'Go Back' slogans against MP as Mamata faces fresh public ire over Bengal minor girl's murder | Minor girl kidnapped and murdered in Bengal; locals set police camp on fire, BJP slams Mamata govt | Kashmir: 2 terrorists killed in Kupwara as Army foils infiltration bid | Today, India is the fastest-growing major economy: PM Modi at Kautilya Economic Conclave | Bengal junior doctors end ceasework, threaten to go on hunger strike if demands not met in 24 hours
Australian Uyghurs express concern over disappearing relatives in China
Australia Uyghurs
Image: World Uyghur Congress website

Australian Uyghurs express concern over disappearing relatives in China

| @indiablooms | 05 Jun 2021, 11:45 am

Adelaide: Australian Uyghurs have expressed concern over the recent disappearance of the people belonging to the community in China.

Yusuf Hussein, a Uyghur, who lives in Adelaide, recently voiced concern over the disappearance of his elderly parents in 2017.

“Suddenly, [they] disappeared and none of them answered my phone,” Hussein told Al Jazeera.

“They didn’t message me at all. I tried to send a message. None of them responded," he said.

Hussein believed his father, who is 85, mother and siblings have been transferred to what he describes as a “concentration camp” – large-scale detention centres that the United Nations has said may hold an estimated one million Uighur people.

The Chinese government, whose treatment towards Uyghur has always earned criticisms from rights groups, however, describe these camps as “vocational skills training“.

The president of the Uighur Association of Victoria, Alim Osman, told Al Jazeera at a recent parliamentary inquiry there were about 5,000 Uighurs living in Australia, with about 1,500 of them thought to be in Adelaide, a city of 1.3 million people on the south coast.

Marhaba Yakub Salay, who has been living in Australia since 2011, said her elder sister Mayila Yakufu is also currently imprisoned in Xinjiang for the second time.

When Yakufu was released after she was first interned for 10 months in 2017, Salay spoke with her by phone for about 10 minutes, reports Al Jazeera.

During the conversation, Yakufu would not say where she had been.

“I was trying to ask her – where did you go in the last 10 months?” Salay told Al Jazeera.

“She didn’t say anything, but she said, ‘Don’t worry about us – the Chinese Communist Party [is] looking after us very well'," Salay said.

Salay believed that her sister was calling not from home, but from another location under government supervision.

According to an email from the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs (DFAT) – which Al Jazeera has seen – Salay’s sister was arrested “on suspicion of financing terrorist activities”.

The charge, Salay explained, was founded on money transferred by her sister to their parents, who also live in Adelaide.

This money, Salay told Al Jazeera, was not for terrorism, but to buy a home.

“We got all the evidence here,” Salay said. “It’s black and white evidence – but the Chinese government still accuses my sister of supporting terrorism overseas.”

The incidents came to light at a time when the relationship between China and Australia has touched new lows.

Support Our Journalism

We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism

IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.

Support objective journalism for a small contribution.
Related Images
Xi Jinping, Putin in Russia 22 Mar 2023, 02:56 pm
Related Videos