Uyghurs: Transnational Repression and Deportations

Summary

China presses governments from Thailand to Egypt, the Gulf and Morocco to detain, deport or extradite Uyghurs, while pressuring diaspora families abroad into silence and surveillance.

What it argues

1. Thailand's deportations

   Thailand deported at least 40 of 48 held Uyghurs to China in February 2025 despite UN warnings of persecution risk. UNHCR called the move a clear violation of non-refoulement; two detainees had already died in custody. A year after an earlier case, the fate of 40 Uyghurs sent back from Thailand remained unknown. Thailand returned Uyghurs to China despite international warnings, leaving their fate unconfirmed.

2. Egypt and Gulf extraditions

   Egypt arrested dozens of Uyghurs in 2017, mostly Al-Azhar students, and deported at least 12 to China. CNN documented an extradition from the UAE and detentions of pilgrims in Saudi Arabia, with families left unanswered. Activist Abduweli Ayup counted at least 28 Uyghur deportations from Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE between 2017 and 2019. Multiple Muslim-majority states have handed Uyghurs to China despite risk of persecution.

3. Morocco blocks extradition

   Yidiresi Aishan was held in Morocco from 2021 under an Interpol Red Notice issued at China's request. The UN Committee against Torture ordered Morocco not to extradite him and to release him absent charges. He was freed in February 2025 after three years and seven months in detention. UN intervention stopped an extradition, but only after years of detention.

4. Turkey's reversal

   Erdogan called China's Xinjiang policy a genocide in 2009, but Turkey has since stayed publicly silent. Turkish police detained Uyghur protesters outside Chinese missions in Istanbul and Ankara in 2021. Officials including Interior Minister Soylu cast the protests as part of a foreign-driven conflict. Turkey has moved from criticizing China's Xinjiang policy to policing its own Uyghur diaspora.

5. Recognition versus endorsement

   Canada and the Netherlands recognized China's actions in Xinjiang as genocide in February 2021, following the US. In 2019 more than three dozen states, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iran, publicly endorsed China's Xinjiang policies. The UAE's ambassador to Beijing praised the policies after a 2020 visit, citing stability and living standards. International response to Xinjiang splits between genocide recognition and public endorsement of China's policies.

6. Sanctions and new law

   The US sanctioned unnamed Thai officials over the deportations and imposed visa restrictions on those responsible. China's Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress took effect in July, asserting legal authority over individuals abroad who 'incite ethnic division'. Thailand defended the deportations, saying China had assured it the men would be unharmed. Washington is sanctioning enforcers even as Beijing formalizes legal reach over Uyghurs overseas.

7. Turkey's economic dependence

   Analysts say Turkey's reliance on Chinese trade, investment and credit shapes its silence on Uyghur rights. Ankara's sourcing of COVID-19 vaccines from China added a further dependence, Brookings' Kemal Kirisci said. Kirisci said a steady, affordable vaccine supply required Ankara to stay largely quiet on the issue. Economic dependence on China constrains Turkey's willingness to confront it over Uyghurs.

8. Families used as leverage

   Human Rights Watch says China interrogates Uyghur Australians visiting Xinjiang and presses them to inform on diaspora activists and language schools. Relatives in Xinjiang face threats or restricted communication to pressure activists abroad, and some Uyghurs abroad go years without contact. Uyghurs in Turkey, Egypt and Australia describe fear of travel and surveillance, and some say they will not return to Xinjiang even under a visa-free program. Beijing uses separated families as a tool to silence and isolate the diaspora.