Uyghurs in Afghanistan Fear Deportation to China or Persecution Under The Taliban

Uyghurs living in Afghanistan are terrified that the Taliban’s takeover of the country could mean they will be extradited to face harsh punishment in China or suffer other dangers in the war-torn South Asian nation. Since Taliban militants seized control of the Afghanistan following the pullout of U.S. forces earlier this month, triggering an unabated chaotic exodus of thousands of civilians and foreigners, advocacy groups have been saying they fear the worst for the country’s estimated 2,000 Uyghurs.

The 12 million Uyghurs in northwestern China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) have since 2017 been the target of a systematic assimilation campaign of forced birth control and sterilization, forced labor, and mass incarceration that has sent as many as 1.8 million of the Turkic Muslims through a network of internment camps.

A Uyghur woman who has been living in Kabul with her Afghan husband for more than 10 years told RFA’s Uyghur Service that she fears both Taliban repression and mistreatment of women and being returned to China on account of their status as “Chinese migrants.”

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