Canada votes to take in 10,000 Uyghur refugees amid Chinese pressure to force their return
Move shows ‘what is happening to the Uyghurs is unacceptable’, says MP after non-binding parliamentary ballot with prime minister’s support
Police on patrol in Kashgar, in China’s Xinjiang region. Rights groups believe at least 1 million Uyghurs and minorities have been incarcerated in internment camps in the region. Photograph: Thomas Peter/Reuters
Canada’s parliament has unanimously passed a motion to take in 10,000 Uyghur refugees who fled China, but are now facing pressure to return.
The vote on Wednesday builds on a February 2021 move by Canadian lawmakers to label Beijing’s treatment of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in its north-western Xinjiang territory as genocide.
Rights groups believe at least 1 million Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim minorities have been incarcerated in internment camps in the region, where China is also accused of forcibly sterilising women and imposing forced labour.
Tens of thousands have fled the region, and according to Canadian backbench MP Sameer Zuberi, who sponsored the motion, at least 1,600 have been detained in other countries at China’s behest or forcibly repatriated.
Zuberi noted that prime minister, Justin Trudeau, and his cabinet voted in support of the motion, signalling the government’s “intent to make this happen” even though it is non-binding.
“It is a clear signal that we do not accept human rights violations against the Uyghur people,” Zuberi said at a news conference. “What is happening to the Uyghurs is unacceptable.”
Mehmet Tohti, executive director of the Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project, said it was a message that “will resonate not only in China and in Canada but around the world”.
The motion says Uyghurs who “fled to third countries face pressure and intimidation by the Chinese state to return to China” and accuses Beijing of also applying diplomatic and economic pressure on countries to detain and deport them, “leaving them without a safe haven in the world.”
It proposes resettling 10,000 Uyghurs in Canada over two years, starting in 2024.
China has defended its Uyghur camps in Xinjiang, saying they are crucial to battling terrorism and providing vocational training to minorities.
But the US has said China’s repression of Uyghurs amounts to “genocide”, and the United Nations has condemned China’s persecution of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims.
Dolkun Isa, president of the World Uyghur Congress, said: “The Uyghur people are under attack: our language, culture, religion, history, ethnic identity.”
MPs vote unanimously to urge Canada to resettle 10,000 displaced Uyghur people
The idea is to resettle Uyghurs from other countries rather than directly from China
Demonstrators take part in a protest outside the Chinese embassy in Berlin on December 27, 2019, to call attention to China's mistreatment of members of the Uyghur community in western China. (John MacDougall/AFP/Getty Images)
Members of Parliament have unanimously called on Ottawa to start a refugee program to resettle 10,000 Uyghurs fleeing persecution in China.
Liberal MP Sameer Zuberi proposed the motion last June calling on the government to launch a program in 2024 to bring Uyghurs and other Muslims of Turkic origin to Canada.
WATCH: Canada is 'meeting the moment,' MP says
Liberal MP Sameer Zuberi says the ‘historic’ vote brought together ‘all parties, all parliamentarians ... to support the Uyghur people.’
The UN Human Rights Office reported last August that China is committing "grave human rights violations" against Uyghur people, and that some who fled to other countries have been "forcibly returned," though Beijing rejects these reports.
The motion, which is not binding, calls on Canada to develop a plan within four months to take in 10,000 Uyghur people over the course of two years.
The idea is to resettle people from countries such as Turkey rather than directly from China. Zuberi argues there is no safe way to do the latter.
The Commons passed a motion in February 2021 that recognized China's treatment of the Uyghur people as a genocide. Members of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's cabinet abstained from the vote, saying more international investigations were needed.
