Murat\u2019s mother had become one of the estimated 1 million ethnic minorities swept up in China\u2019s harsh \u201canti-terror\u201d crackdown against Xinjiang\u2019s predominantly Muslim Uyghur population<\/a>.<\/p>\n She was among 227,882 people arrested and detained last year<\/a> in Xinjiang\u2019s extrajudicial \u201cre-education\u201d camps<\/a>, which Beijing vehemently denies exist. The phrase \u201cgone to study\u201d has become a euphemism for being taken away by Chinese police and not being heard of since.<\/p>\n \u201cI called a civil servant and they were so rude to me, but somehow, they told me my mother was in a camp in Qichuanhu town,\u201d Murat told HKFP.<\/p>\n President Xi Jinping ordered a \u201cstrike hard\u201d government campaign to tackle unrest across Xinjiang in 2014, following riots among Uighur groups in 2009 which mostly targeted the Han Chinese majority.<\/p>\n Since 2016, hard-line official Chen Quanguo has overseen an increase in security spending and development of a network of camps where inmates are held without proper trial<\/a>, according to NGO Human Rights Defenders.<\/p>\n The Beijing government has since rolled out an extensive network of surveillance<\/a>, estimated to be worth 58 billion yuan (HK$66 billion), including iris scanners, facial recognition and DNA collection, that aims to control the region\u2019s ethnic minority groups.<\/p>\n It is part of a broad campaign to silence Uighurs at home and abroad. According<\/a> to Radio Free Asia, Chinese authorities held some family members hostage until overseas Uighurs returned to Xinjiang last year.<\/p>\n US-backed Voice of America reported<\/a> that the strategy is part of an \u201canti-extremism\u201d effort to investigate the ideologies of Uighurs studying abroad. For those who decide to remain overseas, details of their loved ones in Xinjiang are scarce and complaints often fall on deaf ears.<\/p>\n \u2018An information black hole\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Murat has lived in Finland since 2010, after he said he was detained in Xinjiang for 10 days in 2008 by Chinese authorities for communicating with a foreigner. His parents secured his release by bribing authorities with RMB100,000 (HK$114,000).<\/p>\n Murat said that he emigrated to escape the crackdown in Xinjiang, but still routinely experiences panic attacks and bouts of insomnia: \u201cI am powerless and don\u2019t know what to do,\u201d he said. \u201cI do not know where my family is, have they passed away or not. If so, where are their bodies? It is like an information black hole.\u201d<\/p>\n When his four-year-old daughter presses him on the whereabouts of her grandmother, he draws a blank, retreats into his room and cries.<\/p>\n The 33-year-old renounced his Chinese citizenship in 2016 but remained a target for mainland authorities. He said that during a business trip to Shanghai on a Finnish passport in 2017, he was held for two hours by border guards, who strip-searched him, asked him about his religious views, and recorded his voice as he read an Uighur text.<\/p>\n A Chinese official told a UN human rights committee in Geneva earlier this month that tough security measures in Xinjiang were necessary to combat extremism.<\/p>\n But Dru Gladney, Professor of Anthropology at Pomona College, said that the strategic importance of Xinjiang in the \u201cBelt and Road Initiative\u201d \u2013 an ambitious plan to boost trade via economic links to Eurasian countries \u2013 had motivated the government to tighten its grip on the region.<\/p>\n \u201cThere has clearly been a serious breakdown in trust. The [Chinese] government is not willing to allow Uighurs to participate in this enormous venture, and there\u2019s also significant fear on the part of the Uighurs, insofar as their own cooperation with the government in their efforts,\u201d he told HKFP.<\/p>\n Stateless<\/strong><\/p>\n Murat is considered lucky \u2013 he was granted Finnish nationality. Others are unable to obtain official documents from their host countries and therefore face becoming illegal stateless residents when their passport renewals are denied by Chinese authorities.<\/p>\n \u201cThe significant change over the past two years has been that the requests from many Uyghurs for [China passport] renewals are now flatly refused,\u201d Peter Irwin, project manager at World Uyghur Congress, told HKFP.<\/p>\n \u201cUyghurs now know that if they voluntarily return to China, they will almost certainly be detained and sent to political indoctrination centres there.\u201d<\/p>\n Mehmetjan from Aksu in northern Xinjiang faces a similar situation: \u201cI was stopped at an airport [outside of China] because my passport had nearly expired, so customs officers recommended that I renew it,\u201d he told HKFP. When he tried to renew his passport at a Chinese embassy, authorities refused.<\/p>\n While Mehmetjan was studying at university, he caught wind that his sister had been detained in a \u201cre-education\u201d centre. Her house had been demolished, and her husband and three children were forced to stay elsewhere.<\/p>\n HKFP was able to find Google Earth images of the houses before and after the demolition at the location given by Mehmetjan.<\/p>\n Afraid of suffering the same fate when he returned, he moved to the US, but is still waiting to be granted American citizenship: \u201cI fear so much, I cannot sleep for many days. But after I realise that I have to face an uncertain, dark future, and accept that it\u2019s a part of the life we must face as Uighurs, then I feel a little bit of relief,\u201d he said. \u201cMost Uighurs abroad live with depression and fear, fear of deportation.\u201d<\/p>\n Mehmetjan explained that his relatives in Xinjiang had removed him from the popular Chinese messaging app WeChat,<\/em> for fear that contact with foreigners would lead to repercussions from Chinese authorities: \u201cI am so worried about my relatives and friends in Aksu,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t even know if they are still alive or not.\u201d<\/p>\n Shut out<\/strong><\/p>\n Gulzire Tashimaimaiti, a Uighur woman living in Germany, has not heard from her younger sister Guligeina since she left Malaysia to return to Xinjiang last year. Gulzire had asked her sister to change her profile picture on WeChat every week to show she was safe after returning.<\/p>\n Guligeina changed her photo shortly after arriving but did not change it again. But in February, her background photo was changed to a black and white photo of a person in a shadow.<\/p>\n Based on this, Gulzire believes that her sister was detained towards the end of January. Her suspicions were confirmed when a close friend told her that Guligeina had \u201cgone to study,\u201d before deleting her on WeChat.<\/p>\n \u201cAll my friends have deleted me,\u201d Gulzire told HKFP. \u201cShe really didn\u2019t commit any crimes. In the past seven years, the only crime she committed was\u2026 the crime of studying in Malaysia.\u201d<\/p>\n An Urumqi-based source shared with NGO Human Rights Watch a form<\/a> he had to complete for a data-sharing system, which included a list of 26 \u201csensitive\u201d countries owing to their \u201cinvolvement with [political] instability,\u201d the NGO reported. Gulzire told HKFP that the list includes Malaysia.<\/p>\n Gulzire has not been able to contact her relatives since October after they deleted her from WeChat, and they will not speak over the phone either: \u201cThey\u2019re afraid of picking up calls coming from outside the country\u2026 I heard that this is also a crime,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n She said that her friend told her to focus on raising her family in Germany and stop talking to reporters: \u201cBut I don\u2019t have a choice. I have to do these things. Whether I do them or not, the Chinese government won\u2019t care\u2026 talking to reporters is my only choice.\u201d<\/p>\n Repercussions<\/strong><\/p>\n Irwin from World Uyghur Congress said that pervasive surveillance in Xinjiang drives Uighurs to cut off communication with relatives overseas: \u201cOn the one hand, Uighurs in East Turkistan have halted their communication as their cell phones are very often inspected by police and WeChat is closely monitored. On the other, Uighurs in the diaspora are now afraid to put family and loved ones in trouble if they send any messages,\u201d he told HKFP.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a tragic circumstance to live in a world with ubiquitous communication to all ends of the globe, but the inability to speak to those you love for fear of retribution.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Frustrated, Murat would call authorities in Turpan to demand information on his mother\u2019s whereabouts: \u201cWhat can you do? We can do what we want, you can just shut your mouth,\u201d they replied. Shortly after, in a bitter winter that swept across northern China, they switched off the heating to his father\u2019s home.<\/p>\n \u201cI cried and got an anxiety attack,\u201d Murat said. \u201cI guess they wanted to let me know that I am nothing and that they are capable of doing anything.\u201d<\/p>\n A month later, Murat\u2019s calls to his father began to go unanswered and he feared the worst. After weeks of uncertainty, a neighbour eventually told him that his father had been put into a detention centre: \u201cI was in shock, but I was ready for it,\u201d he whispered. \u201cWhen my grandmother passed away in February, they wouldn\u2019t allow him to attend the funeral \u2013 he is an only son. It was his last chance to see her.\u201d<\/p>\n As the eyes of the world begin to turn towards Xinjiang, state media are flooded with a deluge of articles that speak of the vibrancy of the region. But for Uighurs living within it, the reality is much grimmer.<\/p>\n Murat has started a petition<\/a> seeking the release of his parents.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/docs.uhrp.org\/images\/chrome_2018-08-07_14-38-43.jpg\")
Kashgar, Xinjiang in 2017. File photo: David Stanley, via Flickr.<\/em><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/docs.uhrp.org\/images\/chrome_2018-08-28_18-24-19.jpg\")
Satellite Imagery of Xinjiang \u201cRe-education Camp\u201d No.36 in Turpan, where Murat\u2019s parents are thought to be held. Photo: Google Earth.<\/em><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/docs.uhrp.org\/images\/pjimage-15.jpg\")
Murat with his parents in Turpan, Xinjiang. Photo: Murat Uyghur.<\/em><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/docs.uhrp.org\/images\/WhatsApp-Image-2018-08-15-at-21.48.04.jpeg\")
Murat with his grandmother in Turpan, Xinjiang. Photo: Murat Uyghur.<\/em><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/docs.uhrp.org\/images\/chrome_2018-08-28_11-23-57.jpg\")
A population collection data form supplied by the Xinjiang Bureau of Public Security. The form asks questions on religious practices, and whether the person has travelled abroad to \u201926 countries.\u2019 Photo: Human Rights Watch.<\/em><\/p>\n