China’s passport trap: new front in global war on Uyghurs

Threat to chef living in Kyrgyzstan raises spectre of new sinister tactics to crack down on persecuted minority

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan (MNTV) – – China is issuing invalid passports to force Uyghurs who have fled persecution to return home, where they face arbitrary detention, forced labour and possible death, reports The Telegraph.

Beijing’s embassies are believed to be deliberately producing travel documents with incorrect information for citizens living abroad, thus setting them up for deportation. 

For Uyghurs, a persecuted Muslim minority, being sent back to China means they are likely to face imprisonment, “re-education” camps, and torture.

Obulqasim Isma’il, who has lived in Kyrgyzstan since 1998, told The Telegraph he was given a new passport at the Chinese embassy last autumn. 

It had his picture, but an incorrect name (Aisikaer Nuermaimaiti) and an incorrect birth date of Aug 3 1966, instead of March 16 1973. 

He protested to embassy staff, pointing out that the information was inaccurate, but they forced him to accept the passport anyway. To get the passport fixed, “they said I would have to go to Urumchi [in China] to complain,” he said. 

Obulqasim, 52, is now stuck in limbo, and faces deportation within days from Kyrgyzstan to China because he is in possession of a “fake” passport in the eyes of the Kyrgyz authorities. 

“I am afraid they would incarcerate me if I went,” Obulqasim told The Telegraph. “I’m very scared about what will happen to me if I’m forced to go back.” 

Since 2014, China’s crackdown against the Uyghurs has intensified significantly, with the authorities arbitrarily detaining upwards of a million people in “re-education”’ camps, and scores more in prison for “crimes” such as praying and fasting. 

Beijing is also known to target “fugitives” abroad. The government has specified that it “provides clues” about “fugitives…to the countries where they are located, so that these countries would deprive them of their residency status and compulsorily repatriate them to our country or the third country in accordance with immigration laws”.

Who China considers a fugitive, however, is very subjective, as the state considers political dissidents and ethnic minorities, such as Uyghurs and Tibetans, who are critical of the government to be criminals. 

Arrests on foreign soil

Beijing has sent its officers into other jurisdictions to make arrests on foreign soil, as well as kidnapping foreigners in secret and sending them back to prison. It is continually adapting its methods, and is particularly adept at exploiting legal grey areas. 

“We do know China actively uses deportation in cooperation with other authorities to get people back – that’s an official policy,” said Laura Harth, of Safeguard Defenders, a human rights advocacy organisation that focuses on China. 

Several means of forced returns are codified in Chinese law, with “repatriation” listed as one measure. 

What’s new in Obulqasim’s case is that the Chinese embassy did technically issue him a passport, but with inaccurate identifying details, causing him a host of visa problems in Kyrgyzstan now leading to likely deportation.

“It seems quite smart,” said Harth, noting that such an approach gives China “plausible deniability”. 

Obulqasim, a soft-spoken man, works as a chef, and is neither an activist nor a dissident. But experts say his mere identity as an Uyghur is enough to put him in China’s crosshairs. 

“We see this pattern over and over again. Not just in Kyrgyzstan, but in countries where China is targeting individuals, there doesn’t seem to be rhyme or reason why,” said Julie Millsap, director of government relations at the Wild Pigeon Collective, a Uyghur advocacy organisation. 

“Some seem to be very ordinary businesspeople, and at times not even particularly well-connected, yet China will go to efforts to force countries to send people back as part of a broader trend.” 

After emigrating from China in 1998, Mr Obulqasim visited his country of birth only a few times, and hasn’t returned in 25 years. His remaining family members there have all since died. 

He built a new life, and at one point ran his own restaurant in Kyrgyzstan, where he married and had several children. Other than a few short stints working in Uzbekistan and Turkey, also as a chef, he has primarily resided in Kyrgyzstan.

Before his older brother died, Chinese authorities would force him to call Obulqasim to try and persuade him to return. The message from his brother was always the same: “They say you should come home, just for a week or two.”