MP Sameer Zuberi Urges Canadian Government to Resettle 10,000 Uyghur Refugees

Canadian MPs and human rights advocates have pressed the federal government to welcome and resettle up to 10,000 Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims who have escaped persecution in China and are now living in third countries.

This call builds on Canada’s earlier recognition of China’s treatment of Uyghurs and other Turkic groups in Uyghur region as genocide—a stance the House of Commons adopted unanimously in February 2021.

Liberal MP Sameer Zuberi, who chairs Parliament’s foreign affairs subcommittee on international human rights, introduced private member’s motion M-62. The motion urged the government to:

• Acknowledge the ongoing threats Uyghur refugees face, including pressure and intimidation from Beijing to return to China, where they risk arbitrary detention, forced labor, torture, family separation, and other severe abuses.
• Recognize that host countries often face Chinese diplomatic and economic pressure to deport these individuals, leaving them without safe options.
• Use Canada’s Refugee and Humanitarian Resettlement Program to fast-track the admission of 10,000 such refugees over two years, beginning in 2024—while ensuring the plan does not reduce spots for other persecuted groups.

Zuberi emphasized the moral duty: “A genocide is happening, and we have a responsibility to protect people.”

Experts have noted that while this would be a significant humanitarian step, it risks straining diplomatic relations between Ottawa and Beijing.

The push highlights Canada’s role in offering safe haven amid the documented atrocities in Uyghur region, where Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims continue to face mass internment, forced assimilation, and cultural erasure.