Canada moves to take in 10,000 Uighur refugees who fled China

Parliament unanimously passes motion to resettle Uighurs in over two years, starting in 2024.

Security guards stand at the gates of what is officially known as a vocational skills education centre in Huocheng County in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region on September 3, 2018.
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Security guards stand at the gates of what is officially known as a vocational skills education centre in Huocheng County in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region on September 3, 2018.

Canada's parliament has unanimously passed a motion to take in 10,000 Uighur refugees who fled China's Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region but are now facing pressure to return.

Wednesday's move builds on a February 2021 move by Canadian lawmakers to label Beijing's alleged mistreatment of Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims in its northwestern Xinjiang territory as "genocide."

Rights groups and many Western countries believe at least one million Uighurs 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.

China strongly denies the allegations and says it is running vocational training programmes and work schemes to help stamp out extremism in the region.

Pressure and intimidation

According to backbench Canadian MP Sameer Zuberi, who sponsored the motion, at least 1,600 have been detained in other countries at China's behest or forcibly repatriated.

At a news conference 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 Uighur people," he said, adding that "what is happening to the Uighurs is unacceptable."

The motion says Uighurs 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 Uighurs in Canada over two years, starting in 2024.

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