Call on China to allow reunion of Uyghur families!
Some Uyghur parents have been separated from their children as a result of the unprecedented crackdown on ethnic populations in Xinjiang. With your voice, we can push China to end this separation.
Dilnur, together one of her daughters, left China for Turkey in 2016 to escape harassment by the local police, who repeatedly searched her house and ordered her to remove her hijab. Her other daughter and son were unable to travel with her, and she left them in the care of her parents.
In early 2017, Dilnur's father was interrogated by the police and the family threatened with removal to an internment camp — a tactic to pressure her to return to Xinjiang. Encouraged by her father, Dilnur made the difficult choice to stay where she was. She has been unable to reach any family members since April 2017. Dilnur and her daughter now live in Canada, where she studies English and hopes to be reunited with her missing children.
Dilnur's story is tragically not unique. Many Uyghur parents overseas have had to leave one or more children in the care of family members in Xinjiang. Some parents have since learned their children were taken to state-run "orphan camps" or boarding schools after the relatives taking care of them had been detained.
The mass detention campaign in Xinjiang has prevented Uyghur parents from returning to China to take care of their children themselves. It has also made it nearly impossible for them to bring children whose passports have been denied or confiscated out of China to be reunited with them.
Sign the petition and call on China's President Xi Jinping to ensure that children are allowed to leave China to be reunited as promptly as possible with their parents and siblings already living abroad, if that is preferred by them.
Dear President Xi:
I am alarmed to learn of the reports that some Uyghur parents have been separated from their children for years as a result of the unprecedented crackdown on ethnic populations in Xinjiang.
Since 2017, an estimated one million or more people have been arbitrarily detained in "transformation-through-education" or "vocational training" centres in Xinjiang, where they have been subjected to various forms of torture and ill-treatment, including political indoctrination and forced cultural assimilation. This mass detention campaign combined with systematic repression have prevented Uyghur parents from returning to China to take care of their children themselves and made it nearly impossible for their children to leave China to reunite with them abroad. Some Uyghur parents believe their children may have been taken to state-run "orphan camps" or boarding schools when the relatives taking care of them were detained.
[your comments here]
I therefore call on you to ensure that children are allowed to leave China to be reunited as promptly as possible with their parents, if that is preferred by them, as well as with siblings already living abroad.
Sincerely,
[your name]
