Ottawa: Canada’s parliament unanimously passed a proposal to grant asylum to 10,000 Uighur refugees who fled China but are now facing pressure to return.
The move follows a February 2021 move by Canadian lawmakers to label Beijing’s treatment of Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims in the northwestern Xinjiang region as genocide. Rights groups believe at least one million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities are imprisoned in concentration camps in the region, where China is also accused of forcibly sterilizing women.
The House of Commons voted 322-0 to Liberal MP Samir Zuberi’s bill. Backbench MP who sponsored the proposal. According to Samir Zuberi, at least 1,600 people have been detained or forcibly returned to other countries at the behest of China.
In a news conference, Zuberi said that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his cabinet voted in support of the resolution. This is a clear indication that we do not accept human rights violations against the Uyghur people. What is happening to the Uyghurs is unacceptable. Canada proposes to resettle 10,000 Uighurs over two years starting in 2024. China, on the other hand, has defended its Uyghur camps in Xinjiang, saying they are important for fighting terrorism and providing vocational training to minorities. But the United Nations has said China’s crackdown on Uighurs amounts to “genocide” and has condemned China’s persecution of Uighurs and other Turkish Muslims.