Reported by Ihsan Xukran and Translated by Uyghur Times English Team
September 9, 2024
In a troubling development, Turkish special police forces arrested a 31-year-old Uyghur woman, Afife, in a pre-dawn raid in the Safa Koy district of Istanbul on Thursday, September 5, 2024. Around 4 AM, officers broke down her door and forcibly detained her without providing any explanation for the arrest, leaving her four young children alone and terrified, the witnesses told Uyghur Times team in Istanbul.
Afife, who lost her husband and is now the sole provider for her family, pleaded desperately with the authorities. She was only able to call an acquaintance after much difficulty, urging them to take care of her children. Currently, the children are staying with a relative who is already caring for three children and is reportedly in poor health, raising concerns about the well-being and safety of all seven children in the household.
Afife’s arrest is part of a worrying trend of arbitrary detentions of Uyghurs by the Turkish government, many of whom face the looming threat of deportation. The Uyghur community in Turkey has reported increasing detentions in recent years, and while some detainees are released after a period, others have disappeared without a trace, heightening fears of deportation to China, where Uyghurs face severe persecution.
Despite growing outrage and calls for action on social media, no organization or entity has been able to stop these detentions. Human rights activists have expressed alarm over the Turkish government’s apparent disregard for the safety and rights of Uyghur refugees.
Until the news is published, the fate of Afife and her four children remains uncertain.
