OPINION: Uyghurs Need Safe Flight Passages and Secure International Transits

By Anna Kadeer

August 1, 2022

For today’s Uyghurs, leaving their homeland—occupied East Turkistan, which China renamed Xinjiang—has become nearly impossible.

Several years ago, Chinese authorities confiscated Uyghurs’ passports under the pretext of “safekeeping.” In reality, this policy was designed to trap an entire people inside a region that would soon become the site of mass internment, surveillance, and repression.

Those Uyghurs who managed to leave before 2017, before the mass detentions began, are now scattered across the world. Many live in exile in countries where they are safe from immediate arrest, but not from uncertainty, fear, and statelessness.

Turkey today hosts the largest Uyghur diaspora community, with more than 50,000 people. Yet even there, the number is slowly shrinking. Despite shared Turkic roots, life in Turkey has become increasingly difficult for many Uyghurs who lack proper legal status and valid travel documents. Without stable residency, work permits, or passports, daily life becomes a constant struggle.

Egypt was once another important destination, especially for Uyghurs seeking Islamic education. That changed dramatically in 2017, when, at China’s request, Egyptian authorities detained and deported several Uyghur students back to China. Many of their relatives, who narrowly escaped arrest, fled again to other countries in search of safety.

In the years since, China has effectively sealed the borders of East Turkistan to Uyghurs in exile. Returning home for a visit is now unimaginable. For many, their Chinese passports have expired. Chinese embassies abroad routinely refuse to renew Uyghur passports or issue documents to children born overseas. Instead, they instruct Uyghurs to return to China to renew their papers.

No Uyghur in their right mind would take such a risk.

The result is a growing population of Uyghurs who have no valid travel documents and no country they can truly call home. Many children born in exile have no passports at all. Families are trapped in legal limbo, unable to move forward and unable to go back.

Even for those who manage to secure a ticket to a safer country, the journey itself can become a life-threatening gamble.

Uyghurs must carefully study which countries have extradition treaties with China, and which airports might become traps. The case of Idris Hasan is a painful example. Hasan, a young Uyghur father of three, was stopped during transit in Morocco in July 2021. China accused him of terrorism and requested an Interpol red notice. Although Interpol withdrew the notice less than two weeks later, Moroccan authorities have continued to detain him.

His life remains in limbo because of a single transit stop.

Today, even passing through some Western countries is not necessarily safe for Uyghurs. Everything depends on a country’s political and security relationship with Beijing.

This situation is not accidental. It is part of a transnational campaign to control Uyghurs beyond China’s borders.

Residents, activists, journalists, and policymakers in free countries must recognize this emergency. We must work to create safe air routes and secure transit protections for Uyghurs. Governments should establish special procedures that allow Uyghurs stranded abroad to obtain temporary or alien passports at embassies. Immigration systems should introduce fast-track asylum and emergency documentation for this persecuted group.

I call on democratic countries to make exceptions for Uyghurs.

We cannot wait several more years while families remain trapped in fear and uncertainty. There is no safe return to their homeland today, where China is committing genocide.

Uyghurs need safe passage.
Uyghurs need protection.
And they need our help—now.