Centre for China Analysis and Strategy

CHINA-EGYPT: FORCIBLE REPATRIATION OF UYGHURS TO CHINA

Citing reports Amnest International reported on July 7, 2017, that around 150 Uighurs have been detained in Egypt and have either already been, or are currently at imminent risk of, being forcibly returned to China. The New York Times, citing anonymous Egyptian aviation officials, reported on July 6, 2017, that at least 12 Uighurs had been deported from Cairo to Guangzhou, China on Egypt Air, and that another 22 Uighurs were being detained for immediate deportation. The Uighurs were all students at Al-Azhar University, in Cairo. The Uighur Human Rights Project (UHRP) stated to Amnesty that Egyptian authorities are detaining at least 150 Uighur students, including 70 in the Chinese embassy in Cairo, where Chinese security officials reportedly questioned and forced them to sign documents declaring their membership in the Turkistan Islamic Movement. A source close to the Uighur community in Egypt stated to Amnesty that harassment of Uighur students started three months ago, when Chinese authorities detained families of several students, demanding that Uighur students in Egypt return home by 20 May. The source claimed that some students that returned were tortured and some sentenced to 15 years in prison for “spreading extremism.”

Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported on July 10, 2017, that at least 200 Uyghurs, many of them religious students, have been detained since July 4, rounded up in restaurants and at airports as they tried to flee to safer countries. Egypt's state-owned Middle East News Agency (MENA) quoted unnamed officials as denying on Sunday that Egyptian authorities were targeting Uyghur students. The Daily News Egypt website, however, quoted the Egyptian Commission of Rights and Freedoms (ECRF) as saying on July 9, that 12 Uyghur students were deported to China on July 6, while Egyptian authorities have arrested at least 80 Uyghur students in Cairo and 20 in Alexandria and Hurghada.