Latest for @dw_chinese - Following her video pleading for help from the international community, I got in touch with Gulzire Awulqanqizi, hoping to get the full picture of her situation. Here's what she is facing right now -
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@dw_chinese In yesterday's video, Awulqanqizi said a Kazakh government official told her that the Kazakh government suspected that she was a Chinese spy, and they wanted to deport her back to #Xinjiang before the end of 2019.
@dw_chinese "I was supposed to be back in China within 6 months. But, I stayed in Kazakhstan for more than one year. For this reason, China is urging Kazakhstan to repatriate me back to #Xinjiang before the end of this year," she said.
@dw_chinese She was detained in a re-education camp for 15 months, and then sent to a factory to make gloves for three months. She was told that the reason for her detention was because she went to Kazakhstan, which is one of the 26 countries considered suspicious by the Chinese government.
@dw_chinese "We had to study Chinese law for 14 hours a day, and we were only allowed to use the bathroom two times a day, and each time was only 2 minutes long. After we finished studying Chinese law, we would be escorted back to our dorm and we had to study Chinese."
@dw_chinese "Detainees can't communicate with each other in the camp and there was a surveillance camera in every dorm. To let us express our emotions, we were given a specific period of time to cry every day," she told me.
@dw_chinese The guard would tell them that they could start crying, and if they ever cried outside of the designated "crying time," they would be threatened and scolded. "Even though we were given a period of time to cry, we could only weep quietly, and the guards would be monitoring us."
@dw_chinese After being detained for 15 months, Awulqanqizi was transferred to a factory. She was given a Chinese contract and forced to sign it, but she refused since she couldn't read anything on the contract. She was promised a wage of 600 RMB a month, but she never received them.
@dw_chinese During her time at the factory, she tried to snap photos inside the factory and sent it to her husband, who was in Kazakhstan at the time. Her husband then shared the photos with @atajurt_kazak, who then shared those photos with media outlets.
@dw_chinese @atajurt_kazak When the local government in #Xinjiang found out about it, they took her to a dark space in the basement and handcuffed her. "They accused me of leaking national secrets and locked me in the dark space for 24 hours before letting me go."
@dw_chinese @atajurt_kazak She was released from the factory in December, 2018 and when she got back to Kazakhstan, she started sharing her experience in the camp with human rights organizations and media outlets.
@dw_chinese @atajurt_kazak But then earlier this year, she was told by a contact in the Kazakh government that they saw her name on the list of former detainees kept by the Chinese government and the person warned her to be safe. She started feeling anxious and scared.
@dw_chinese @atajurt_kazak "I decided to contact @atajurt_kazak and seek their help." According to member of Atajurt, they had advised Awulqanqizi to submit a letter to the UN, pleading for their support to seek asylum in a third country if she had to be deport to #China.
@dw_chinese @atajurt_kazak "Since it will soon be the end of the year, she was really scared about being deported back to China. The Kazakh government had told her that she may not get her Kazakh citizenship despite the fact that she had submitted her application," a member of @atajurt_kazak told me.
@dw_chinese @atajurt_kazak @patrickpoon told me that Gulzire's experience exposes how even having a foreign passport cannot give her any protection. It will make other ex-detainees even more afraid of speaking up about their experiences for fear of any retaliation.
@dw_chinese @atajurt_kazak @patrickpoon "If Kazakhstan eventually decides to send Gulzire to China, it will show how the Muslim world gives up its own principles and succumbs to China's influence," Patrick told me.
@dw_chinese @atajurt_kazak @patrickpoon Patrick suggests that the world needs to respond fiercely to these false claims by the Chinese government and save those who are detained in the camps.
"The only option is to ask China to close the camps and end the discriminatory practice against Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups," said Patrick.
